Social contagion is the only adequate explanation for why so many younger people-especially women-claim to be bisexual or “bi-curious” in such a short time. “This is the social contagion thesis that sociocultural phenomena can spread through, and leap between, populations more like outbreaks of measles or chicken pox than through a process of rational choice.” “Simple exposure sometimes appears to be a sufficient condition for social transmission to occur,” research psychologist Paul Marsden says. Social contagion is the thesis that attitudes, beliefs, and behavior can spread through populations as if they were somehow infectious. Social contagion and normalization of homosexuality have combined to make the younger, highly susceptible, and credulous generations believe they should identify as LGBTQ. What It Means: No one who has been following the trends in sexuality in America will be surprised by these findings. 4.9 percent, respectively) and bisexual (4.3 percent, with 1.3 percent identifying as lesbian and 1.3 percent as something else). Women are also more likely than men to identify as LGBTQ (6.4 percent vs. In older age groups, expressed bisexual preference is not significantly more common than expressed gay or lesbian preference. Gallup notes that 11.5 percent of all Gen Z adults in the United States say they are bisexual, with about 2 percent each identifying as gay, lesbian, or transgender.Ībout half of Millennials who identify as LGBTQ say they are bisexual. The vast majority of Gen Z adults who identify as LGBTQ (72 percent) say they are bisexual. (Respondents could give multiple responses when describing their sexual identification, which is why the totals exceed 100 percent.)
An additional 3.3 percent volunteer another non-heterosexual preference or term to describe their sexual orientation, such as queer or same-gender-loving.
More than half of LGBTQ adults (54.6 percent) identify as bisexual, compared to about a quarter (24.5 percent) who say they are gay, 11.7 percent who identify as lesbian, and 11.3 percent who identify as transgender. The largest non-heterosexual category is bisexual. In comparison, only 3.8 percent of Generation X (born 1965-80), 2 percent of Baby Boomers (born 1946-64), and 1.3 percent of Traditionalists (born before 1946) identify as something other than heterosexual. Almost one in ten (9.1 percent) Millennials (Americans born between 19) and one in six (15.9 percent) members of Gen Z (born 1997-2002) identify as LGBTQ.