Is there something in the water? There are more LGBTers in America than ever before!
In the GALLUP.com article "In US, More Adults Identifying as LGBT" we see that our numbers are on the rise. Is it bad to speculate why?
Of course our first thought about the results are that no matter what number a survey comes up with, there's more LGBTers than are reported. Not everyone is out and not everyone is even open with themselves. There will be a good amount of people that will not answer the survey honestly. With that obvious statement, let's look at the most recent Gallup results.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The portion of American adults identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) increased to 4.1% in 2016 from 3.5% in 2012. These figures, drawn from the largest representative sample of LGBT Americans collected in the U.S., imply that more than an estimated 10 million adults now identify as LGBT in the U.S. today, approximately 1.75 million more compared with 2012.
The top three results Gallup chose to highlight above all others were
- 10 million American adults identify as LGBT (4.1%)
- LGBT millennials up from 5.8% in 2012 to 7.3% in 2016
- LGBT identification higher among women
This analysis is based on interviews with a random sample of more than 1.6 million U.S. adults as part of Gallup Daily tracking. Across the five years of data collection, more than 49,000 respondents said "yes" when asked, "Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender?"
With our alphabet soup of a name under the rainbow flag, did we lose some results by just asking about the L, the G, the B, and the T and not the plethora of other letters? Do you think we would have higher numbers if Gallup included the other T, I, I, Q, Q, A, A and so on?
Click on images for larger views.
And what about the increase in the younger generation LGBT numbers? Is there something in the water? Are there more LGBTers or are they just more comfortable in identifying?
And then we see that the ladies are identifying more than the boys.
Gallup even looked at the economic and education factors in regard to LGBT identifying. Education wise, it looks like we have leveled off, but do the results say that more of us are in the lower economic bracket than are in the higher one?
And then there are the religious factors. Yes, Gallup went there.
Are you surprised at any of the results?
Why do you think the changes are occurring?
h/t: gallup.com