2023 Gallup Poll, LGBTQ+ Identification. Cosplaying sexual identities. UPDATE.
The numbers seem to indicate that the rise in the percentage of those identifying as LGBTQ+ is mostly young women declaring they are bisexual, and some declaring they are asexual.
Subscriptions are free.
Gallup Poll, LGBTQ+ Identification. Cosplaying sexual identities?
Breaking down this poll result. It is not what it seems.
(Link to the Gallup Poll report at the end of this item.)
The LGBTQXYZ media uncritically accepted these numbers as some type of triumph.
It always needs to be understood that in these polls, that these are self-reported identities. The men weren’t measured with a plethysmograph.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penile_plethysmography
So you look at these statistics and it looks like a whole revolution is going on.
However, this is an identity. It doesn’t necessarily mean they have had homosexual sex. They might say they are pansexual, but never have had homosexual sex. They might say they are bisexual, but never have homosexual sex.
The Gallup poll doesn’t have any question related to sexual practice to assess identity.
First the Gallup numbers.
So it looks like a surge. I can see one trend is that younger people are more out and anyone who knows the older Gay community, (I am 72 for disclosure), know that they are much less likely to disclose being Gay to some stranger.
But lets look at Generation Z statistics more closely.
When you break down the Gen Z percentages by gender you get this.
Those aren’t typos. Some women identify as Gay rather than Lesbians, and I guess there are some transbians. MtF transgender who imagine they are Lesbian.
What you can see that for young women, being bisexual is fashionable and are transgender. It looks like a fad. Might not be, but my suspicion is that it is a fad. Without the fad were would likely see an increased percentage of bisexuals, but it should be around the percentage of Lesbians or Gay men.
This can’t be looked as an entirely negative development. Obviously social prejudice has declined drastically with this younger generation such that they can have fads like this.
When I go to Dallas Pride events, it looks like a Straight event with couples with color in their hair. A lot of women bring their boyfriends and there isn’t that much Gay in Dallas Pride. Another separate event is being re-started for the Gayborhood.
This isn’t entirely negative either. Straight men are comfortable enough to go to a Pride event with their “bi” girlfriend.
This is the issue, the agenda becomes directed towards these persons likely cosplaying sexual orientations, and the focus on Lesbians and Gays is no longer there. The Dallas Pride event isn’t a Lesbian and Gay event anymore, and hence another event is created.
This isn’t to say there aren’t bisexuals, but I think that they suffer the most, since they have real needs as opposed to those cosplaying a sexual orientation.
This is the consequence of initialism, of LGBT getting every longer, now it is LGBTTIQQ2SA. There are several variants.
The needs of Lesbians and Gays get lost in the shuffle.
The agenda gets to be directed by those who have adopted an identity as part of a fad.
I think that alliances are alright. I work locally with the LGBT+, but I believe more in the L+G+B+T, which is we work as allies when we have common interests.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/611864/lgbtq-identification.aspx
The Gallup 2024 results omit the table of by Age and Gender.
UPDATE: Some reporting and analysis by people who also thought the increase is just people wanting to be bisexual to be something special and social cohesion.
Globe and Mail, May 25, 2024, “‘Going both ways’: Young women are increasingly identifying as bisexual, but what does that mean?”
Are we witnessing the inevitable result of a more open society, with more people able to be who they really are? Or are these a bunch of straight women who fancy themselves more interesting, or more politically enlightened, than the square suburbanite that the phrase “straight woman” evokes?
Some are making the case that it’s the latter. The culture writer Katherine Dee posted on X, in response to the Gen Z female bisexuality findings: “This is a meaningless difference unless it’s reflected in their behaviour, not just their identification habits. Ask me how many bisexual friends I have who haven’t so much as seen another woman naked, forget had sex with one. Keep it moving.” Ms. Dee has written about the way that some young people have started to view sexual orientation labels as less about what you’re doing, with whom, in the flesh, than as claims of affinity or belonging – “More internet-based and therefore disembodied.”
Some may be finding their identity rooted in post-#MeToo sensibilities – that it is unseemly for a woman to need a man. But more of it is, I think, an internalization of the now decades-long drumbeat of supposed science on how women are inherently bisexual. The regularly issued proclamations that all women are bi always feel a bit too convenient. Even if couched in terms of queer liberation, the all-women-are-a-bit-bi theory has a way of winding its way back to business as usual. (Not least because it suggests lesbians are secretly open to dating men.)
Identities are self-reported. We don’t actually measure sexual orientation objectively. The issue is raised whether it is just social contagion.
This is a rather indepth report, but has a summary.
Some excerpts.
The most popular LGBT identity is bisexual, which is significantly more common among women than men.
When we look at homosexual behavior, we find that it has grown much less rapidly than LGBT identification. Men and women under 30 who reported a sexual partner in the last five years dropped from around 96% exclusively heterosexual in the 1990s to 92% exclusively heterosexual in 2021. Whereas in 2008 attitudes and behavior were similar, by 2021 LGBT identification was running at twice the rate of LGBT sexual behavior. [Boldface added.]
Other bullet points strongly suggest perhaps that identifying as bisexual is an ideological statement rather than these women actually doing anything sexual with another woman. Same thing for the men.
Been reading you for a while without paying. When I read your stuff, I range between saying, "Yes, exactly. That nails it" and "Well, interesting perspective, but...."
Today when I read something something, just one line, it really resonated: <<The needs of Lesbians and Gays get lost in the shuffle.>>. So much in those eleven words, so much about where our gay culture is today. (Are we allowed to say that anymore, "gay culture"?)
I upgraded to paid.
What I said above invites a longer conversation. But while I don't always agree with you, what you write often sparks thoughts about the world in which we gay men live. And I want to encourage you to keep putting your thoughts out there -- and to keeping us thinking and questioning.
I worked in colleges for about 15 years leading into Covid. There's one trend I noticed which I think is a good thing overall but might make these numbers problematic.
In the last five years (2015-2020) I overheard more than a few all male conversations the gist of which was:
Gay/straight/bi/etc. is determined by whom you DATE. If you are known to have romantic interest /date only women … you are straight. End of story. Jumping into bed with another man because you're lonely, bored, or horny IN BETWEEN (that's the key point) girlfriends isn't part of the equation.
So.... Interesting...