New polling released from Gallup shows that almost one in 10 adults in the U.S. identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, called by the organization “an increase from a few years earlier,” although many estimates have placed the number of individuals identifying as lesbian and gay at one in 10 dating back to the 1980s.
According to the release, the latest information shows how the rise in acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities over the course of the past few decades has made people more comfortable to be who they truly are – even in the face of state and national politicians weaponizing their power to try to strip away LGBTQ+ rights.
The polling of 14,000 adults showed that 9.3 percent identified as LGBTQ+, including 5.2 percent identifying as bisexual, two percent as gay, 1.4 percent as lesbian and 1.3 percent as transgender. Applied to a national population of 341 million people, that would be 31.7 million LGBTQ+ adults, including 17.7 million bisexual people, 6.8 million gay people, 4.8 million lesbians and 4.4 million transgender people.
“This polling reflects what we’ve been saying all along: the future that anti-equality politicians are fear mongering about is already here,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson. “LGBTQ+ Americans have always been here, and we are not going anywhere. There are way too many of us to be ignored, there are way too many of us to drive us out of everyday life, and the politicians who think they can turn back the clock on LGBTQ+ acceptance will fail. It is a beautiful thing that growing acceptance over the course of recent decades has allowed more and more people to show up as their authentic selves, and we should all be working toward a future where everyone can be exactly who they are.”
According to Gallup, in 2020 less than six percent of the population identified as LGBTQ+, and in 2012 it was less than 4 percent. The Times noted that most of the growth in the LGBTQ+ population comes from young people and bisexual women.
Dr. Mitchell R. Lunn, a researcher of LGBTQ+ health at Stanford University, told The Times that he believes the Gallup numbers are likely an under count and that the increase is “largely driven by the many decades of gradual increasing societal acceptance.”
The polling echoes research from the Human Rights Campaign and Bowling Green State University that indicated by 2040, about one in five voters will be part of the LGBTQ+ community, making us one of the fastest growing voting blocs in the country.