Nearly 30 percent of Gen Z women identify as LGBTQ: Gallup

Nearly 30 percent of Generation Z women identify as a member of the LGBTQ community, according to a new report.

The Gallup survey, released Wednesday, found that 28.5 percent of women and 10.6 percent of men born between 1997 and 2012 identify as LGBTQ. In comparison, the same report found that only 12.4 percent of Millennial women and 5.4 percent of Millennial men identify as LGBTQ.

The study found that 15.3 percent of Gen Z respondents identify as bisexual, 3 percent identify as lesbian, 2.6 percent identify as gay and 2.8 percent identify as transgender.

Of all of the generations included in the survey, Gen Z respondents were most likely to identify as members of the LGBTQ community. Collectively, 22.3 percent of Gen Z survey takers were likely to identify as LGBTQ — compared to 9.8 percent of millennials (born between 1981-96), 4.5 percent of Gen X (born between 1965-80), 2.3 percent of baby boomers (born between 1946-64) and 1.1 percent of the silent generation (born between 1928-45).

“The generational differences and trends point to higher rates of LGBTQ+ identification, nationally, in the future. If current trends continue, it is likely that the proportion of LGBTQ+ identifiers will exceed 10% of U.S. adults at some point within the next three decades,” Gallup said in its report.

Overall, 7.6 percent of Americans identify as LGBTQ, per the survey. This is up from last year, when 7.2 percent of Americans identified themselves as members of the community.

Despite the rise in LGBTQ identification across America, other data suggests that some Americans’ perceptions of the community may be turning negative. 

New data from the Public Religion Research Institute’s American Values Atlas survey, released earlier this week, found support for same-sex marriage dropped from 69 percent in 2022 to 67 percent in 2023. The last time Americans’ support for same-sex marriage dropped in the same survey was between 2014 and 2015, from 54 to 53 percent. 

The survey also showed support for nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people falling for the first time since 2018. Americans’ support for those protections reached a peak of 80 percent in 2022, but fell to 76 percent last year.

The recent Gallup poll was conducted in 2023 among 12,145 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point at the 95 percent confidence level.