3.8% of America’s adult population identify themselves as either gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, according to a study published by The Williams Institute, part of the UCLA School of Law. Transgender refers to a person who does not identify with their own birth gender – if they were born male, they may identify themselves as female, if they were born female, they may identify themselves as male.
Highlighted below are some key facts revealed by the study:
- 3.5% of the US adult population is estimated to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual
- 0.3% of the US adult population is estimated to be transgender
- The two findings above imply that there are about 9 million gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender adults in the USA
- Bisexuals make up a slight majority among those who identify themselves as gay, lesbians or bisexual
- 1.8% of the adult population identify themselves as just lesbian
- 1.7% of the adult population identify themselves as just gay
- A higher proportion of bisexual females are likely to admit to their sexual orientation, compared to males. In eight of the nine surveys the researchers examined, bisexuals made up over half of the lesbian and bisexual population among females, while gay males made up over half of the gay/bisexual male total in seven of the nine surveys.
- Approximately 19 million American adults (8.2%) say they have at some time in their lives engaged in same-sex sexual behavior
- 25.6% (11%) of US adults admit to experiencing some kind of same-sex sexual attraction
Written by Christian Nordqvist