The 28% identifying as LGBTQ+ definitely seems like an indication that the sampling might be off. That could be true, but it seems much, much higher than previous estimates.
A lot more people identify with LGBT+ than there used to be, because it’s a very open label and people are more able to identify with it in accepting environments.
There’s a hell of a lot more people now who are… pretty much cishet, but maybe have some 5% attraction to the same sex, or they’re attracted to trans/nonbinary people, and so they consider themselves bisexual or pansexual, etc. when 5-10 years ago they probably wouldn’t have.
The specific number starts to mean a lot less when we remember the attitude of those people answering “do you identify with LGBT” has quickly shifted from “oh, well I’m definitely not gay!!” to “uhh sure, why not?” in a very short amount of time. I’m of the opinion this doesn’t reflect a change in our baseline behavior and is… not even consistently measurable given the diverging, shifting cultural context.
For people under the age of, say, 40, the idea of sexuality is far more fluid than in previous generations. People are less likely to say “I am straight and straight only” and more likely to say “I usually like girls but I realize that context is everything and there may be some dude out there I like and I’m also open to trying other new experiences even if that’s not necessarily my thing.”
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The 28% identifying as LGBTQ+ definitely seems like an indication that the sampling might be off. That could be true, but it seems much, much higher than previous estimates.
A lot more people identify with LGBT+ than there used to be, because it’s a very open label and people are more able to identify with it in accepting environments.
There’s a hell of a lot more people now who are… pretty much cishet, but maybe have some 5% attraction to the same sex, or they’re attracted to trans/nonbinary people, and so they consider themselves bisexual or pansexual, etc. when 5-10 years ago they probably wouldn’t have.
The specific number starts to mean a lot less when we remember the attitude of those people answering “do you identify with LGBT” has quickly shifted from “oh, well I’m definitely not gay!!” to “uhh sure, why not?” in a very short amount of time. I’m of the opinion this doesn’t reflect a change in our baseline behavior and is… not even consistently measurable given the diverging, shifting cultural context.
For people under the age of, say, 40, the idea of sexuality is far more fluid than in previous generations. People are less likely to say “I am straight and straight only” and more likely to say “I usually like girls but I realize that context is everything and there may be some dude out there I like and I’m also open to trying other new experiences even if that’s not necessarily my thing.”
Maybe they thought the + included allies?