Gallup: Record 7.1% of Americans now identify as LGBT

A new Gallup poll finds that a record 7.1% of Americans now identify as something other than heterosexual, including 1 in 5 Generation Z young adults.

Gallup reported this week that the percentage of U.S. adults claiming to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual in 2021 was double what the first survey on this question found in 2012 and up from 5.6% in 2020.

“The increase in LGBT identification in recent years largely reflects the higher prevalence of such identities among the youngest U.S. adults compared with the older generations they are replacing in the U.S. adult population,” Gallup reported.

The survey found that about 21% of Generation Z Americans who have reached adulthood — those born between 1997 and 2003 — identified as LGBT last year.

“That is nearly double the proportion of millennials who do so, while the gap widens even further when compared with older generations,” Gallup said.

The remaining 86.3% of respondents identified as straight or heterosexual, with that percentage higher among older generations. Some 6.6% of poll respondents did not offer an opinion.

Gallup found that 57% of LBGT Americans, or 4% of all U.S. adults, described themselves as bisexual. Among the others, 21% of LGBT Americans identified as gay, 14% as lesbian, 10% as transgender and 4% as something else. Each of these categories represents less than 2% of U.S. adults.

Joni Madison, interim president of the LGBT advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement that the Gallup results underscore the need for increased legal protections for those with a self-selected gender identity.

“This growth shows the impact of a more inclusive society and closely mirrors HRC findings,” Ms. Madison said. “Both emphasize the need to codify legal protections against discrimination and implement LGBTQ+- inclusive data collection at federal, state, local and private levels.”

While LGBT identification has been stable among Americans born in Generation X (1965-1980) and older, Gallup found that the number has been rising among younger Americans. There has also been a gradual uptick among Generation Y millennials (born 1981-1996) from 5.8% in 2012 to 10.5% last year.

Gallup said much of the increase also stems from older generations dying off as more youths reach adulthood. From 2017 to 2021, the percentage of Generation Z adults in the survey rose from 7% to 12% as more of them turned 18, while the proportion of the “traditionalists” (born from 1946) fell from 11% to 8% as more of them passed away.

The percentage of each generation that identified as straight or heterosexual was 92.2% for traditionalists, 90.7% for baby boomers born 1946-1964, 89.3% for Generation X, 82.5% for millennials and 75.7% for Generation Z.

Meanwhile, the LGBT advocacy group GLAAD reported this week that the percentage of LGBT characters in primetime broadcast television’s 2021-2022 season is now 11.9% — higher than the percentage that Gallup found among U.S. adults.

Gallup based its findings on aggregated cellphone and landline interviews with 12,416 U.S. adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia last year. For the entire sample size, the margin of error was plus or minus 1% at the 95% confidence level. For the 657 adults who identified as LGBT, the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 5% at the 95% confidence level.