How Many People are Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr? - Williams Instute

Contents:

• AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN
• HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR?
• AMERINS VASTLY OVERTIMATE SIZE OF GAY POPULATN, GALLUP POLL REVEALS
• WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY [UPDATED MAY 2023]
• WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE U.S. POPULATN IS GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL?
• IS 10% OF THE POPULATN REALLY GAY?
• AMERINS GREATLY OVERTIMATE PERCENT GAY, LBIAN U.S.
• WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?

AMERINS STILL GREATLY OVERTIMATE U.S. GAY POPULATN

As Gallup poted out s ial timate of the entire LGBT populatn 2012, "Exactly who mak up the LGBT muny and how this group should be measured is a subject of some bate, " and "there are a number of ways to measure lbian, gay, and bisexual orientatn, and transgenr stat.

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

Are far lower than what the public timat, and no measurement procre has produced any figur suggtg that more than one out of five Amerins are gay or lbian.

Among polil partisans, Democrats and pennts timate that about a quarter of Amerins are gay or lbian, while the average approximatn among Republins is a b lower (18. It is, therefore, possible that Amerins' perceptns of the gay populatn may be fluenced by the greater reprentatn they see among young people.

Back 1948 sex rearcher Aled Ksey famoly suggted that 10 percent of the mal he'd studied were, quote, "more or ls exclively homosexual, " unquote. Also, the Ksey Instute has - which is the legacy of Ksey - has stated very clearly that their view is that this was a kd of a polil cisn of gay activists the '70s. They need at that time to nvce people that the gay people actually existed and fact that they were kd of everywhere.

AMERINS VASTLY OVERTIMATE SIZE OF GAY POPULATN, GALLUP POLL REVEALS

And they took that rather obscure passage om a Ksey book, which was never tend to be an timate of the number of gay people the Uned Stat and kd of adopted for polil purpos.

So qutns like, do you nsir yourself to be - and then, you know, you n choose gay, lbian, bisexual, heterosexual. And, fact, we will lk to a piece that you wrote for The Washgton Post tled "Gay People Count, So Why Not Count Them Correctly? Twenty-one per cent of LGBTQ+ Amerins intify as gay, 14% lbian, 10% transgenr and 4% somethg one six Gen Z adults, or 15%, intify as bisexual.

“The young adults [Generatn Z] are g of age, cludg g to terms wh their sexualy or genr inty, at a time when Amerins creasgly accept gays, lbians and transgenr people, and LGBT dividuals enjoy creasg legal protectn agast discrimatn, ” Gallup said. 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.

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

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.

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE U.S. POPULATN IS GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL?

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). ” 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. Adults’ intifitn as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or somethg other than heterosexual held steady 2022, at 7.

IS 10% OF THE POPULATN REALLY GAY?

In each survey, Gallup asks rponnts if they intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or somethg else, allowg them to choose multiple inti. About one five LGBT adults intify as gay, about one seven say they are lbian, and slightly fewer than one 10 intify as transgenr. In 2022, Gallup for the first time rerd the preferred inty of those who dited they were somethg other than heterosexual bis the tradnal lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr inti.

4 percent) also noted that Democrats and pennts timated about a quarter of Amerins are gay, while Republins gused a b lower (18. In the 1940s, the Ksey Report helped flate the size of the gay populatn people's mds: Aled Ksey mataed sexualy was fluid, claimg that 13 percent of men were "predomately homosexual" for at least three years between ag 16 and 55. He also reported that at least 37 percent of men and 20 percent of women had some same-sex experience between the begng of adolcence and old the 1970s, the Natnal Gay and Lbian Taskforce cnched Ksey's data and touted the statistic that 10 percent of the populatn was homosexual.

) Many people are still closeted to some gree, but Gallup reports "no measurement procre has produced any figur suggtg that more than one out of five Amerins are gay or lbian.

AMERINS GREATLY OVERTIMATE PERCENT GAY, LBIAN U.S.

In addn to beg able to intify whether they are lbian, gay, bisexual or straight, rponnts may also specifilly intify whether they are transgenr. In olr age groups, exprsed bisexual preference is not signifintly more mon than exprsed gay or lbian preference.

At a time when Amerins are creasgly supportive of equal rights for gay, lbian and transgenr people, a growg percentage of Amerins intify themselv as LGBT.

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.

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?

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.

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. Gallup's LGBT timat are based on those rponnts who say "y" when asked, "Do you, personally, intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr?

The general groupg of the four orientatns (lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr) to one qutn volv signifint simplifitn, and other measurement techniqu which ask about each of the tegori dividually yield different timat.

But past data that I’ve seen had suggted that there were about twice as many gay or bisexual men as lbian or bisexual women; this data suggts that there is no such genr gap. Back 1977, the US Natnal Gay Task Force (NGTF) was ved to the Whe Hoe to meet Print Jimmy Carter’s reprentativ – a first for gay and lbian groups. The NGTF’s most proment mpaigng slogan was “we are everywhere”, backed up by the memorable statistil claim that one 10 of the US populatn was gay – this figure was eply and passnately where did Bce Voeller, a scientist who was a founr and first director of the NGTF, get this nice round 10% om?

To fd out, we have to lve back to Aled Ksey’s surveys 1940s Ameri, which were groundbreakg at the time but are now seen as archaic their methods: he sought out rponnts prisons and the gay unrworld, ma iends wh them and, over a cigarette, noted down their behavurs g an obscure . Ksey did not believe that sexual inty was fixed and simply tegorised, and perhaps his most lastg ntributn was his sle, still ed today, which dividuals are rated om exclively heterosexual to exclively homosexual on a sle of 0 to ’s headle fdg was that “at least 37% of the male populatn has some homosexual experience between the begng of adolcence and old age”, meang physil ntact to the pot of asm. He claimed that 13% of mal were predomately homosexual for at least three years between the ag of 16 and 55 (srg at least 4) and that 4% of mal were exclively homosexual all their liv (srg 6).

In unmarried femal between the ag of 20 and 35, he claimed there was at least some homosexual experience 11%-20%, and 1%-3% were exclively Ksey terviews a woman for one of his sexual behavur surveys. Photograph: Bill Dellenback/APSo, 1973, when Voeller was puttg together the NGTF mpaign, he went back to Ksey’s timat for those wh predomantly homosexual experience (4 to 6 on his sle) for at least three years.

But even cleaned-up data gave siar answers, and Voeller stuck to the 10%, statg 1990 that “the ncept that 10% of the populatn is gay has bee a generally accepted ‘fact’… As wh so many piec of knowledge (and myths), repeated tellg ma so.