Here's a link to the direct Gallup poll data.

Generation Z (born 1997-2002) 15.9%
Millennials (born 1981-1996) 9.1%
Generation X (born 1965-1980) 3.8%
Baby boomers (born 1946-1964) 2.0%
Traditionalists (born before 1946) 1.3%

16% for Gen Z seems massive. That's more than all other age groups combined.

I'd always wondered why so many cases here at SSN were men hiding their sexuality, factoring that lesbian late bloomers were less likely. In the data, lesbians are actually 50% to 75% less common than gay men. Statistically, it aligns to the case volume we see here.

Another recent Gallup poll has a fascinating look at the relationship status of those who identify as LBGT. 

U.S. Adults' and LGBT Adults' Marital Status

Married to opposite-sex spouse – 11.4% identify as LBGT
Married to same-sex spouse – 9.6% identify as LBGT
Living with opposite-sex domestic partner – 9.2% identify as LBGT
Living with same-sex domestic partner – 7.1% identify as LBGT

11.4% of all marriages between a man and a woman have one partner who identifies as gay/lesbian/bi/trans. While Gallup led with 'One in 10 LGBT Americans Married to Same-Sex Spouse', the real story here is that there are way more LBGT folks in opposite-sex marriages than in same-sex.

Factoring out bisexuality and trans identifying people, 0.3% of spouses who identify as gay or lesbian only are married to someone of the opposite sex. If you extrapolate that to all of America, that is 900,000 people living this way. To put this into context, less than 2,000,000 cases of cancer will occur in the next year in the US, with 600,000 dying. That means being married to a gay/lesbian spouse is 150% more likely than dying from cancer. While many could be open MOMs, that seems unlikely to cover all.

Non-married opposite sex domestic partners is much higher at 1.6%, for 4,800,000 people. All of these stats ignore the other elephant in the room: a large chunk aren't answering, which likely increases the odds of them being in this audience. Maybe they are questioning or unsure.

"Currently, 86.7% of Americans say they are heterosexual or straight, and 7.6% do not answer the question about their sexual orientation."

And this assumes people are answering truthfully, as someone might not consider an affair with a same-sex partner as changing their sexual status.

One final thought: divorce rates have been going down the past decade, reducing by a quarter, while marriage rates have also been decreasing. So we now have a 100% increase of LBGT identifying individuals, with a 25% drop in divorce. The data above starts to make sense. Most spouses know they are LBGT and are staying in a pre-existing relationship.

It's staggering how common being in a heterosexual relationship with a LBGT spouse is.

Last edited by Upside (February 25, 2021 2:56 pm)

As a recently retired college professor with friends still in the professoriate, I can say that my experience and that of my colleagues supports what Tangled Oil has said: for young women, especially, identifying oneself as "queer" or "bi" is a way to signal one's woke credentials and to identify out of the pressures of an increasingly pornified femininity and its cousin "sex-positive" (so-called) feminism.  Many of these young women have never had a same-sex encounter.  Lisa Littman's study on ROGD (rapid-onset gender dysphoria) found that a "socially contagious" element to many teens girls' identification as transgender boys, powered by social media and friend groups.  These are girls who have never shown the slightest discomfort with their female bodies or with feminine pursuits.  

Given what I've seen, what others I know have seen, what the studies show--especially the massive uptick in young women declaring themselves trans and seeking to begin taking cross-sex hormones (androgens)--I take these figures with a mountain of salt.

Last edited by OutofHisCloset (February 25, 2021 4:20 pm)

So if one is gay they marry the same sex..  if one is bi they marry who..a man or a women?  Or they just don't marry and can switch at any time?

As a straight I would always feel like I'm not enough if married to a bi or gay person...  oh wait that happened already.

I was told by a man about 20 years ago that if a girl is under 25, she thinks that she is bi sexual. To be very honest, I have trouble understanding bi sexuals. I think that you are either straight or gay or lesbian. I sometimes think a person who says that they are bi are really gay or lesbian.