Graphic from Gallup via X

When asked, “Which do you consider yourself to be?” 7.6 percent of adults responding to a Gallup Poll answered LGBTQ. That’s up from 7.2 percent last year and 5.6 percent in 2020. In 2012, three years before marriage equality, only 3.5 percent identified as something other than heterosexual.

The younger the generation, the more likely the response is somewhere along the LGBTQ spectrum. The percentage identifying as queer almost doubles with each younger generation.

Gallup conducted phone interviews of more than 12,000 people. Only 85.6 percent identified as heterosexual or straight. And 6.8 percent refused to answer. The 7.6 percent that fall into th LGBTQ category answered one or more of these: lesbian, gay, bisexual,transgender, queer, pansexual, asexual or other. The group most likely to identify as queer are Gen Z women (currently aged 18-26). Of those, 28.5 percent said they were LGBTQ.

At the current rate of growth, researchers expect more than 10 percent of the U.S. Population to identify somewhere in the queer range within the next quarter of a century.

— David Taffet