Is a Lbian, Gay or Bisexual Inty More Common Today? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?
• IS A LBIAN, GAY OR BISEXUAL INTY MORE COMMON TODAY?
• LBIANS MORE ACCEPTED THAN GAY MEN AROUND THE WORLD, STUDY FDS
• SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY
• BISEXUAL ADULTS ARE FAR LS LIKELY THAN GAY MEN AND LBIANS TO BE ‘OUT’ TO THE PEOPLE THEIR LIV

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?

Increasg numbers of populatn-based surveys the Uned Stat and across the world clu qutns that allow for an timate of the size of the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) populatn. Conversely, gay men prise substantially more than half of gay and bisexual men seven of the ne surveys.

Unrstandg the size of the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) populatn is a cril first step to rmg a host of public policy and rearch topics. In measurg sexual orientatn, lbian, gay, and bisexual dividuals may be intified strictly based on their self-inty or may be possible to nsir same-sex sexual behavr or sexual attractn. Fdgs shown Figure 1 nsir timat of the percentage of adults who self-intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual across ne surveys nducted wh the past seven years.

IS A LBIAN, GAY OR BISEXUAL INTY MORE COMMON TODAY?

While the surveys show a fairly wi variatn the overall percentage of adults who intify as LGB, the proportn who intify as lbian/gay vers bisexual is somewhat more nsistent (see Figure 2). The UK Integrated Hoehold Survey found the proportn to be two-thirds lbian/gay vers one-third bisexual.

The Natnal Survey of Fay Growth found rults that were sentially the oppose of the UK survey wh only 38% intifyg as lbian or gay pared to 62% intifyg as bisexual. The Natnal Survey of Sexual Health and Behavr and the Atralian Longudal Study of Health and Relatnships both found a majory of rponnts (55% and 59%, rpectively) intifyg as surveys show even greater nsistency differenc between men and women associated wh lbian/gay vers bisexual inty. Wh the surveys, a larger actn of adults report same-sex attractns and behavrs than self-intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual (see Figure 4).

Recent survey data the US and the UK revealed that the proportn of the populatn who intifi as lbian, gay, or bisexual has risen slightly and that this trend is particularly salient among the youngt generatn: Generatn Z. In the UK, only a slight majory of Gen Z members dite that they have an exclively heterosexual attractn, while the US, a Gallup poll dit that roughly 15% of Gen Z intifi as lbian, gay, or bisexual – pared to 7.

LBIANS MORE ACCEPTED THAN GAY MEN AROUND THE WORLD, STUDY FDS

9% of the Baby Boomers surveyed the US dited they were not heterosexual, many more may have still had same-sex experienc throughout their lifpan, but they simply do not firmly intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual.

It is much easier to e out today as lbian, gay, or bisexual than was even jt 10 years ago, let alone 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago.

SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

In Canada, for example, any dividual 53 years of age or olr 2021 was born at a time when homosexualy was a crimal offence. There is, however, also a much darker explanatn for why we see fewer dividuals om past generatns intifyg as lbian, gay, or bisexual today than we do om the younger generatns.

The elephant the room is HIV/AIDS epimic that claimed nearly an entire generatn of gay and bisexual men. Gay and bisexual men om the Baby Boomer generatn were between 16 and 34 years of age at the peak of the HIV/AIDS epimic North Ameri.

While is impossible to ever have accurate populatn statistics on a hidn populatn, is timated that at least 10% of gay men the Uned Stat between the ag of 25 and 44 had died by 1995. Th, any attempt to “unt” the number of gay men the Baby Boomer or Gen X generatns needs to nsir the number of people who are simply no longer alive to answer the qutn. In the US data, the percentage of dividuals intifyg as lbian or gay has creased, but not nearly as much as the percentage of those intifyg as bisexual (.

BISEXUAL ADULTS ARE FAR LS LIKELY THAN GAY MEN AND LBIANS TO BE ‘OUT’ TO THE PEOPLE THEIR LIV

Addnally, bisexuals have always faced somewhat a tch-22 which they are both rejected by the heterosexual muny for beg a sexual mory and om the lbian and gay muny for not que beg “gay enough.

The first time, Gallup also asked rponnts to dite their precise sexual orientatn, as opposed to rpondg "y" or "no" to whether they intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or poll found that more than half of LGBT adults (54. A new study explorg the attus toward nonheterosexual men and women 23 Wtern and non-Wtern untri found lbians are more accepted than gay men around the world. “We found that gay men are disliked more than lbian women every untry we tted, ” acrdg to the study, which was nducted by three New York Universy psychologists and published the December issue of the journal Social Psychology and Personaly mori face pervasive discrimatn and hostily globally, wh same-sex sexual activy still illegal approximately 70 untri.

” The nverse is also largely te: For stance Ameri, llege stunts who endorsed “tradnal genr arrangements” were more likely to report negative attus toward gays, lbians and Lra Bettsoli, the study's lead thor, said she and her lleagu were surprised "at the nsistency of the relatnship between genr norm endorsement and sexual prejudice.

""Even though there were some non-Wtern untri that did not nform to the pattern, the majory of untri did, " she said a, untri cludg Cha and India, the survey found that strong genr norms are actually associated wh greater tolerance of homosexualy — that is, people wh the strongt beliefs how men and women should behave were more likely to tolerate homosexualy, the oppose of the Wt, cludg the Ameris and Wtern report speculat that some Eastern untri, “both genr norms and nonheterosexualy are nsired ‘Wtern’ (or, perhaps, palist) ncepts, and those who are pro-Wtern are more likely to feel favorable toward both.

”In all 23 untri studied, the report found "gay men are rated more negatively than lbian women, ” and that trend was almost entirely driven by the views of men, except Poland, Hungary and Rsia, where women also assigned gay men high negative ratgs. In the Uned Stat, men who are anti-gays largely direct their prejudice toward gay men, while women who are anti-gays direct their prejudice more equally toward gay men and gay women, the study found.

“In other words, harborg prejudicial attus toward sexual mori is part of the social nstctn of what means to ‘be a man’” many Wtern untri, acrdg to the January 2019, the Amerin Psychologil Associatn’s first gui to issu specific to men and boys warned that “tradnal masculy iology” — what some characterized as “toxic masculy” — “has been shown to lim mal’ psychologil velopment, nstra their behavr, rult genr role stra and genr role nflict and negatively fluence mental health and physil health” and lked to both homophobia and snapshotThe study also shed light on some ntours of global homophobia.

In Rsia, perhaps unsurprisgly due to s 2013 gay propaganda law, “posive attus toward sexual mori” are the lowt of the 23 untri surveyed. ”It also placed Amerin attus toward lbian, gay and bisexual people the ntext of other untri around the world: Argenta, Atralia, Belgium, Canada, Great Bra, Spa and Swen all have more posive attus toward sexual mori than do Amerins.