The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Young people are more likely to accept gay couples — and to identify as gay

Analysis by
National columnist
February 22, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. EST
A sign outside the House chamber at the Statehouse in Indianapolis on Monday. (Darron Cummings/AP)
4 min

As it does regularly, Gallup asked Americans last year if they identified as straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. About 7 percent of Americans said they identified as one of the latter four categories, essentially the same percentage as identified that way in 2021.

There was an interesting divide, though. When Gallup broke out responses by age, it found that younger Americans were much more likely to identify as LGBT (the Gallup poll excluded “queer,” so no “Q”) than older ones. Only about 2 percent of those in the Silent Generation (born during or before World War II) identified as LGBT. By contrast, about 20 percent of Gen Z (should be known as Lockdowners) chose one of the LGBT options.