Why Are Young Adults Increasingly Identifying as Bisexual?

The Story: A new survey finds that one in six adults between the ages of 18 and 23 now identifies as LGBTQ.

The Background: A recent Gallup survey finds that the number of Americans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender has increased to 5.6 percent, up from 4.5 percent in Gallup’s previous update based on 2017 data. The increase is primarily due to the rise in LGBT identification of younger generations, who are far more likely to consider themselves something other than heterosexual.

Almost one in ten (9.1 percent) Millennials (Americans born between 1981 and 1996) and one in six (15.9 percent) members of Gen Z (born 1997-2002) identify as LGBTQ. In comparison, only 3.8 percent of Generation X (born 1965-80), 2 percent of Baby Boomers (born 1946-64), and 1.3 percent of Traditionalists (born before 1946) identify as something other than heterosexual.

The largest non-heterosexual category is bisexual. More than half of LGBTQ adults (54.6 percent) identify as bisexual, compared to about a quarter (24.5 percent) who say they are gay, 11.7 percent who identify as lesbian, and 11.3 percent who identify as transgender. An additional 3.3 percent volunteer another non-heterosexual preference or term to describe their sexual orientation, such as queer or same-gender-loving. (Respondents could give multiple responses when describing their sexual identification, which is why the totals exceed 100 percent.)

The vast majority of Gen Z adults who identify as LGBTQ (72 percent) say they are bisexual. Gallup notes that 11.5 percent of all Gen Z adults in the United States say they are bisexual, with about 2 percent each identifying as gay, lesbian, or transgender.

About half of Millennials who identify as LGBTQ say they are bisexual. In older age groups, expressed bisexual preference is not significantly more common than expressed gay or lesbian preference.

Women are also more likely than men to identify as LGBTQ (6.4 percent vs. 4.9 percent, respectively) and bisexual (4.3 percent, with 1.3 percent identifying as lesbian and 1.3 percent as something else). Read More