The Gallup polling group does an annual U.S. survey tracking how much of the population identifies as “LGBTQ+”. They released their most recent findings late last week, and this new data further demonstrates how incoherent this meaningless alphabet soup really is.
In 2023, 7.2% of Americans said these letters identified them in some way. In 2024, that number climbed slightly to 7.6%. This year, that number jumped to an even more unreasonable 9.3%. It is unreasonable because the whole idea that “LGBTQ+” represents anything objectively true and real — something that anyone actually is — is a myth.
Gallup reports this new 9.3 percentage apex has nearly doubled since 2020 and is much higher than 3.5% in 2012, the first year Gallup started polling these amorphous identities. Nearly all this growth has taken place among the younger generation, demonstrating this is more social/ideological contagion, rather than something that exists in nature.
What Does “LGBTQ+” Even Mean?
It is not unfair to question what this collection of letters even means.
Gallup explains they asked people if they “identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual.” We must be mindful of the fact that increasing numbers of young people believe its unfashionable to identify as heterosexual, regardless of their actual sexual desires or behaviors. We are naive if we assume someone saying they are “LBGTQ+” means they are attracted to the same-sex or identify as some “other gender.” When asked to identify which of the letters (or the undefined +) they identify with, the majority of this elastic group said they were either bisexual (5.2%) while 5% declined to give an identity at all. This is very telling.
Only 2% said they were “gay,” 1.4% identified at “lesbian” and just 1.3% said they were “transgender.” Fewer than 1% said they were some other identity like pansexual, asexual or queer.
It has been documented that respondents don’t always mean what we might think they mean when they identify as non-heterosexual. Eric Kaufmann, a Canadian professor of politics at the University of Buckingham in England, found in his 2022 research that “LGBT identification was running at twice the rate of LGBT sexual behavior” [emphasis added].
Kaufmann adds, “The majority of the increase in LGBT identity can be traced to how those who only engage in heterosexual behavior describe themselves.” In effect, young people are increasingly using the imprecise “LGBTQ+” identity for reasons beyond what their actual behavior is.
Kaufmann concludes, “Overall, the data suggest that while there has been an increase in same-sex behavior in recent years, sociopolitical factors likely explain most of the rise in LGBT identity.”
Leftist commentator and comedian Bill Maher famously skewered the incoherence of this exploding “LGBTQ+” identity among our youth.
Maher wryly notes that “if we follow this trajectory, we will all be gay in 2054!” Of course, that is no more true than it is that nearly 10 percent of Americans are gay, lesbian or trans. Young people are increasingly identifying with this mish-mash alphabet soup because its trendy and it challenges norms, something nearly every generation of young people has been eager to do to express their so-called independence.
Research published in 2023 in The Journal of Sex Research explains researching adolescent sexual identity is confusing because, they find, “sexual orientation is multidimensional and fluid.” The categories are increasingly meaningless. So much so, that “for many gender diverse adolescents, common questions about sexuality, sexual behavior, and sexual orientation were simply impossible to answer.” Findings “showed multiple developmental patterns, but overall, many adolescents were ‘fluid’ in the sexual identity label and romantic attraction they reported …”
That is what happen when we tell our youth they can literally define their own realities.
Does “LGBTQ+” Even Exist?
Douglas Murray, a British public intellectual who identifies as homosexual, explains in his very important book, The Madness of Crowds, that LGBTQ+ is an absurd fiction.
Why?
Murray is very clear. “Gay men and gay women have almost nothing in common. … Neither have very much use for each other, and almost none meet in any ‘communal’ spaces.” He adds, “Gay men and gay women, meanwhile, have a famous amount of suspicion towards people who claim to be ‘bisexual.’”
He is not done.
“And there is tremendous dispute over whether the T’s are the same thing as everybody else, or an insult to them” and “Queers want to be recognized as fundamentally different to everyone else, and to use that difference to tear down the kind of order that gays are working to get into.”
No, “LGBTQ+” does not exist as a meaningful, coherent category. That is precisely why polling like this from Gallup and other such organizations only tells us how many young people don’t want to be affiliated as mainstream and are all too happy to confuse pollsters with completely made up categories.
Additional Resources
How the Binary in ‘LGBTQ+’ Reveals Its Utter Incoherence
Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue
How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family
Why the ‘LGBT Person’ and ‘LGBT Community’ Don’t Really Exist
How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies
Are Sex and Gender Different Things?
No GLAAD, Gender Ideology is NOT ‘Settled Science.’ It’s the Opposite
Why Focus on the Family Cares About the Gender Issue?
Yes, Sexuality and Gender Are Undeniable Gospel Issues
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