A new survey shows that the number of Americans who identify as part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has skyrocketed since 2012.
The survey, conducted by Gallup, found that the percentage of those who identify as LGBT increased from 3.5 percent in 2012 to 4.1 percent in 2016, which equates to over 10 million Americans.
The driving factor behind the increase was the number of millennials born in 1980-1998 calling themselves LGBT, as that number spiked from 5.8 percent in 2012 to 7.3 percent in 2016.
Among racial demographics, it was Hispanics and Asians that had the highest increases in LGBT self-identification (4.3 percent to 5.4 percent and 3.5 percent to 4.9 percent, respectively). In terms of religion, those who said they were “not religious” and identified as LGBT increased from 5.3 percent in 2012 to 7 percent in 2016. Increases in LGBT identification were nearly identical among people of varying income groups.
In Gallup’s analysis of the survey, they concluded that the overall rise of self-identified LGBT Americans was the result of “differences in social climate that existed when individuals were teenagers and young adults”:
Since 1977, Gallup has asked Americans if they think that gay and lesbian relationships between consenting adults should be legal. In July 1986, just 32% supported legalization of same-sex relationships, marking a low point in that support in Gallup polling. By 1999, when the first millennials were becoming adults, half of Americans supported legalization and, as of May 2016, the figure had risen to 68%.
Data from the General Social Survey (GSS), a biannual survey of adults in the U.S. conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, show a similar pattern. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, large majorities of Americans said that same-sex sexual relationships were always wrong. Beginning in the 1990s, attitudes made a clear shift toward greater acceptance of same-sex relationships. By 2000, 59% of Americans thought they were always wrong, and the 2014 survey marked the first year that more respondents (49%) thought that same-sex relationships were never wrong than thought they were always wrong (40%).
It’s likely that millennials are the first generation in the U.S. to grow up in an environment where social acceptance of the LGBT community markedly increased. This may be an important factor in explaining their greater willingness to identify as LGBT. They may not have experienced the levels of discrimination and stigma experienced by their older counterparts. The perceived risks associated with publicly identifying as LGBT might also be lower in millennials than among other generations.
The results also suggest that sexuality is somewhat influenced by environmental factors. In 2015, the Daily Wire‘s Pardes Seleh reported on how a UCLA study showed that there wasn’t anything to suggest that a “gay gene” exists. Also in 2015, a study from the University of California found that some can be “turned homosexual by their surroundings.” The UK Daily Mail reported in 2016, “Scientific evidence suggests biological and non-social environmental factors jointly influence sexual orientation, in other words, a combination of nature and nurture.”
Therefore, there does seem to be evidence that environmental influences are a factor in homosexuality, and that certainly is reflected in the increase of the number of Americans self-identifying as part of the LGBT community.