How did you first know you were gay? For me, I realized in my teens I would see a guy, think he was cool and that I want to be friends with him. Years later as an out and proud gay man looking back I realized that maybe that was my subconscious trying to tell me something. I didn’t even know I had a subconscious!
Granted, things were very different in the world when 21-year-old Rob DeDominic came out of the closet. Right around the cusp of a new millennium. The plethora of queer shows, books, limited series, and out-and-proud celebrities were few and far between. Google search wasn’t even a thing and if it was a thing I never asked it “If I was gay.”
Fast forward to 2023 and apparently in the past 19 years the questions concerning queer identity, gender and sexuality jumped up a whopping 1300%! Gays love to do their research! According to The Hill,
“The Cultural Currents Institute released an analysis that explored Google searches from 2004 to this month that included searches for questions such as “am I gay”, “am I lesbian”, “am I trans” and “how to come out”, as well as searches for “nonbinary.” The new analysis found that searches for these phrases jumped by more than 1,300 percent during that period.”
the “am I gay?” google search is the realest moment of Heartstopper i’m sorry
the random thing everyone has done and thought they were the only ones…being shown like that still blows my mind idk— matt🍂 (@noblesdoctor) May 13, 2022
What exactly does this spike mean? Are there more queer people than before? I mean the overall population has grown exponentially so that kinda makes sense. Does it mean that with so much information at our fingertips, people might just be throwing question after question into Google search for shits and giggles? Or could this all be attributed to that one scene in Heartstopper? Too many questions…lol
Besides the “Am I Gay” question other questions that the study discussed include –
*Am I A Lesbian?
*How To Come Out?
*Am I Trans?
You might want to sit down for this next part. The data shows that red states have the highest percentage of these searches. Color me shocked! States where right now legislation is being passed to eradicate our community. These states include Utah, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia. Could it actually be the queer people exist everywhere in every state? Could it be that queer people have always existed?
For all you data nerds out there here is the methodology,
“Google Trends data was collected for the search terms “am I gay”, “am I lesbian”, “am I trans”, “how to come out”, and “nonbinary” for all 50 U.S. states and D.C. from January, 2004 to May of 2023. Google’s proprietary 100 point scoring system was used to represent each term’s normalized search volume proportional to all other searches in the region or time period compared. In this system, 100 represents the highest popularity for the term, 50 represents half the popularity, and so on.” (culturalcurrents.institute.)
Not the am I gay? Google search pic.twitter.com/nEqTVKRRfp
— w e s 🌙 (@wescouldtalk) April 25, 2022
The “Am I gay?” Google search. That experience is so universal for younger gays i feltttttt
— prince azi 🏴☠️ (@a_luvyx) May 3, 2022
ahh the good ol ‘am i gay’ google search pic.twitter.com/D6YguNGIo8
— ia (@onlythemotion) April 23, 2022
I wonder how many gays are typing in Am I Gay now after this news went viral? It’s ok if you are of them! Truth time – how many queers actually use Google search in their quest to find themselves? No judgments here – if Google search was around when I was a closeted 14-year-old high schooler you bet your ass I would have been asking it every single thing I could! Sound off in the comments below Instincters!
i’ll never forgive heartstopper for exposing the gays with the “am i gay?” google search. an lgbtq trade secret. pic.twitter.com/PKHUGaCRuz
— jay (@jayjay_isokay) April 27, 2022
the am I gay google search..welcome to the club nicolas pic.twitter.com/UmnP54OEid
— aylin✨ (@triviaylin) May 3, 2022
Source: The Hill
