According to a Gallup poll of 120,000 Americans, 3.4% of all Americans identify as homosexual, bisexual or transsexual. The poll has a lot of interesting figures, including some that most of us probably wouldn’t expect. For example, at 3.2%, white Americans are least likely to identify as LGBT, while blacks lead in that category, with 4.6% calling themselves bi, gay or trans. Another unexpected fact is that education level and income are both negatively correlated with LGBT identification.
Overall, 3.6% of women identify as LGBT, whereas only 3.3% of men do. The numbers rise significantly amongst the young, suggesting that either homosexuality is on the rise due to some environmental factor, or that it can in fact be taught to young people. However, although young men are more likely to report being LGBT than men over 30, the number for women rises so dramatically amongst the young that it raises some questions about what’s going on.
In fact, only 88% of young women state that they are not LGBT, with an eyebrow raising 8.3% confirming that they are, in fact, lesbians, bisexuals or transsexual.
Although I suspect that bisexuality is probably more common amongst women than men, who tend to be either gay or straight with fewer in between, strict lesbianism is less common than strict male homosexuality, so I would have assumed the overall LGBT numbers evened out. But apparently not.
So, does anyone have any theories as to why LGBT identification has soared amongst young women?
