How Many Gays Are There?

Contents:

• WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY [UPDATED MAY 2023]
• HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?
• GAY AMERINS: GOVERNMENT BEGS LGBT POPULATN COUNT
• AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN
• HOW MANY GAYS ARE THERE?
• HOW MANY AMERIN MEN ARE GAY?

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY [UPDATED MAY 2023]

The variants are more clive of all dividuals who are non-heterosexual and non-cisgenr stead of exclively applyg to people who are lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr. For example, one set of qutns may seek self-reported data on same-sex sexual experienc, while another set may seek data surroundg personal intifitn as lbian, gay, or bisexual. Other stat wh LGBTQ+ protectns, such as Massachetts and Colorado, also have higher timated populatns of gay, lbian, bisexual, and otherwise non-heterosexual dividuals.

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.

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.

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

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.

GAY AMERINS: GOVERNMENT BEGS LGBT POPULATN COUNT

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 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). Intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr, acrdg to a new analysis of ernment data, reprentg nearly 8 percent of the natn’s total adult populatn. “For s our stggle has been to stop beg visible, ” says San Francis Supervisor Stt Wiener, an openly gay lawmaker who is proposg this data be llected the Cy by the Bay.

When pollsters asked Amerins last year how they would intify on the Ksey Sle—a six pot ratg spanng om “exclively homosexual” to “exclively heterosexual”—about a third of lennials poted somewhere the “non-bary” middle, pared to about 8% of people over the age of 45.

AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN

Any time you’ve read that there are an timated 65, 000 lbian, gay or bisexual people the ary on active duty––a figure ced by untls media outlets the n up to the 2010 repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”––that’s his work. At the time, he says, “You had plenty of policians who said, ‘I don’t have gay people my district’ or ‘Gay people don’t live here’.

HOW MANY GAYS ARE THERE?

In heated polil battl all over the untry—largely over the e of public bathrooms—transgenr advot n be heard makg arguments about their very existence that echo on ma by gay and lbian Amerins s ago. In the 1970s, the gay liberatn movement was propelled by the still-popular–if not exactly rock solid–statistic that 1 every 10 people is gay. “This is a perd when gay people are really tryg to claim their stat jt like any other mory, racial or relig, ” says Yale historian Gee Chncey.

HOW MANY AMERIN MEN ARE GAY?

At a time when many people believed they didn’t know anyone who was homosexual, that figure portrayed them as the untry’s send-largt mory and gave them polil and enomic clout. The 1 10 figure was taken om a study done by pneerg sex rearch Aled Ksey, who found that 10% of mal were “more or ls exclively homosexual” for at least three years between the ag of 16 and 55.

But experts say the te spe of those problems n only be flhed out by large-sle data llectn—and that such rmatn will make a lot easier to get the rourc need to fix problems like the extremely high rat of poverty experienced by transgenr people and gaps parental rights affectg gay upl wh children, particularly if the numbers have the thory of beg produced by the ernment self. ” The edian Bill Maher said on his show that by 2054, if we follow what he se as the current trajectory, “we will all be gay, ” addg that the rise the number of younger people intifyg as transgenr seemed spic. Bee of the fluence of Schorr put siarly Natnal Review: “To suggt that social suggtibily uld be playg a role the skyrocketg numbers of young girls’ exprsg their sire to bee mal, for example, is not of urse to say that gay and transgenr people would not exist whout the topics’ beg discsed the public square.

”This fear is based on an unrstandg of genr and sexualy as alarmgly agile, easily undone by a gay teacher or a trans TikTok fluencer. This is the first time Amerin history that gay and trans people have been able to live as themselv any real way, wh jobs and marriag and dogs and ts and visibily. Over one-fifth of LGBTQ rponnts, or 21 percent, are gay, 14 percent are lbian, 10 percent are transgenr and 4 percent intify as somethg else.