Nearly 30 percent of Generation Z women now identify as LGBTQ, according to a new Gallup survey released on Wednesday.
The poll found women are nearly twice as likely as men to identify as LGBTQ, with a margin of 8.5 percent versus 4.7 percent.
"Women are more likely than men to have an LGBTQ+ identification in the three youngest generations, especially in Generation Z and the millennial generation," Gallup reports. "Close to three in 10 Gen Z women, 28.5%, identify as LGBTQ+, compared with 10.6% of Gen Z men. Among millennials, 12.4% of women and 5.4% of men have an LGBTQ+ identification."
The most common identifier is bisexuality, which makes up more than two-thirds of those who say they are part of the LGBTQ community. However, this is starkly divided among the genders, with the majority of women identifying as bisexual, while men are equally likely to identify as bisexual or gay.More than one in five Gen Z women identify as bisexual, as do 9% of millennial women. Gen Z men are more likely to identify as bisexual than as gay, while roughly equal proportions of millennial men identify as bisexual or gay. Older generations of LGBTQ+ men are most likely to identify as gay.
The pollsters concluded, "The percentage of U.S. adults who consider themselves something other than heterosexual has more than doubled since Gallup first asked about sexual orientation and transgender identity in 2012. These changes have been led by younger Americans, with about one in 10 millennials and one in five Gen Z adults having an LGBTQ+ status. The generational differences and trends point to higher rates of LGBTQ+ identification, nationally, in the future. If current trends continue, it is likely that the proportion of LGBTQ+ identifiers will exceed 10% of U.S. adults at some point within the next three decades."
The Hill noted that despite the increase in people identifying as LGBTQ, "Americans’ perceptions of the community may be turning negative."
"New data from the Public Religion Research Institute’s American Values Atlas survey, released earlier this week, found support for same-sex marriage dropped from 69 percent in 2022 to 67 percent in 2023," the report states. "The last time Americans’ support for same-sex marriage dropped in the same survey was between 2014 and 2015, from 54 to 53 percent."
The report added, "The survey also showed support for nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people falling for the first time since 2018. Americans’ support for those protections reached a peak of 80 percent in 2022, but fell to 76 percent last year."
