Trey Paul, with Jacob Fuller, FISM News
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The number of U.S. adults who identify as LGBTQ has doubled over the last decade, bringing the amount to 7.2%, according to a Gallup poll released on Wednesday.
U.S. adults’ identification as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual held steady in 2022, at 7.2%. The current percentage is double what it was when Gallup first measured LGBT identification a decade ago. pic.twitter.com/R9KZJqoP9z
— GallupNews (@GallupNews) February 22, 2023
A breakdown of the survey shows younger people — those 25 and under — are driving the numbers with nearly 20% of Generation Z adults now identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something other than heterosexual.
“I think the data is clear that LGBTQ identification is highest among the younger generations,” Gallup Senior Editor Jeff Jones told USA Today. “I don’t put much stock in year-to-year increases or decreases that are within the margin of error … but over a longer period of years you’ll see a more definite trend emerge.”
The survey also shows 11.2 % of Millennials —those born between 1981 and 1996 — identified as LGBTQ, but only 2.7% of baby boomers took on that identification.
The poll is made up of interviews with more than 10,000 U.S. adults with surveyors asking if respondents identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something else.
In addition to the 7% identifying as LGBT, researchers found that 86% of U.S. adults identify as heterosexual, while 7% chose not to answer.
The survey seems to be congruent with the push of the LGBTQ lifestyle onto children. This month, FISM News reported that YouTube Kids, a spinoff of YouTube which is allegedly safe for children, is promoting LGBTQ-friendly media for children.
This year, Harvard Medical School will be offering a class instructing students on care and treatment for patients, from babies to adults, who identify as LGBTQ. Ethicist Nathaniel Blake, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, responded:
Harvard medical students should be taught the basic scientific truth that a man cannot become a woman or vice versa. Those experiencing psychological distress regarding their biological sex need to be treated with compassion, which does not mean subjecting them to dangerous chemical and surgical treatments to mold them into a facsimile of the opposite sex.
THE SOCIAL MEDIA CONNECTION
Such a large increase in the last decade, driven almost entirely by the youngest generation of adults, raises the question of what has set the youngest generation apart in the last decade. The most obvious answer is social media.
Generation Z is the first generation in human history to have access to social media like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Tumblr, YouTube, and Reddit during their childhood, adolescent, and teen years. This opens growing minds to a vast array of influences from people, organizations, and government actors who previously had no access to young, impressionable minds. And with the advent of smartphones, that access is now nearly 24 hours a day.
A 2021 study by scholars at found that the majority of individuals who identified as “transgender” and later “detransitioned” were persuaded to transition genders in the first place on social media. Now, numerous former transgender individuals, such as author Helena Kerschner, are detransitioning and speaking out about the harmful influence social media had on them as adolescents.
As children and adolescents continue to access endless LGBTQ influencers on social media at young, impressionable ages, it seems unlikely the trend toward a growing number of adults and teens identifying as LGBTQ will reverse without changes in what children are allowed to see, hear, and do.
STATES FIGHTING BACK
Several states are pushing back on some of the more radical LGBTQ initiatives, specifically those that promote transgender youth.
South Dakota is now the sixth state in the nation to ban life-altering surgeries that allow a child’s gender to be changed. Gov. Kristi Noem signed the “Help Not Harm” bill into law this month.
“South Dakota’s kids are our future. With this legislation, we are protecting kids from harmful, permanent medical procedures. I will always stand up for the next generation of South Dakotans,” Gov. Noem said.
South Dakota’s kids are our future.
I am signing HB 1080 to protect our kids from harmful, permanent medical procedures.
I will always stand up for the next generation of South Dakotans. pic.twitter.com/vRsCHGihLO
— Governor Kristi Noem (@GovKristiNoem) February 13, 2023
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education Bill into law last year effectively banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through 3rd grade.
“We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination,” Gov. DeSantis said.
Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R-Arkansas), who helped ban life-altering surgeries for kids in her state, believes that so-called trans kids may sometimes think they are trans in an effort to fit in with their peers.
“Maybe these kids just need time to grow up. Adolescence stinks. Nobody wants to go back to junior high. I’ve never met a single person in my entire life that says let’s go back to junior high,” Rep. Lundstrum said. “It doesn’t mean you’re transgender, it doesn’t mean anything, it just means you’re going through adolescence.”
Members of the ACLU say they are tracking more than 300 “anti-LGBTQ” bills across the United States this year.
Gallup surveyors say they conducted polling throughout 2022 with 10,736 adults and had a margin of error of 1 percentage point. Among the 584 LGBTQ-identifying adults polled, they found the margin of error was 5 percentage points.