Look to your left, look to your right. If neither of those girlies are queer, you probably are. Almost 30% of Gen Z women now identify as LGBTQ+, according to a new Gallup report that breaks down the data by age and gender in more detail than ever before.
When I saw that statistic I could only think one thing: My fellow millennial women, we need to get to work. Only 12.4% of millennial women currently identify as LGBTQ+ and our younger counterparts are clearly telling us that those are rookie numbers. It is definitely not very girlboss of us to get upstaged like this.
As Gallup senior editor Jeffrey Jones told NBC News, much of the overall increase in LGBTQ+ identification is being driven by bisexual women. “That’s where a lot of the growth seems to be happening,” Jones said. (Indeed, a whopping 20.7% of Gen Z women are bi now, per the Gallup report.)
We can see that trend even more clearly across the entire survey: In total, 8.5% of women of all generations said they were LGBTQ+. Bisexuals account for the clear majority of that figure, with 5.7% of women specifically identifying as bisexual and 2% as lesbian.
Across all generations and genders, the rate of LGBTQ+ identification has gone way up, now standing at 7.6% overall, more than double what it was in 2012. That rise is reassuring news for anyone who supports open expression, freedom, and equality — and a devastating blow to anti-LGBTQ+ politicians who think they can legislate us out of existence.
But ever the perfectionist, I can’t help but see room for improvement here. Clearly us pre-1996 babies have some more coming out to do: Let’s listen to some girl in red. Let’s go sit on the IKEA bisexual couch — or is it a green velvet couch now? Whatever we need to do to keep up with Gen Z, let’s pull out all the stops. Life is only so long, so we might as well be as gay as humanly possible.
In seriousness, after over a decade of reporting on Gallup data on LGBTQ+ issues, it seems fairly clear to me that people aren’t all of a sudden “becoming gay,” but rather that younger generations are increasingly breaking through the prejudices that keep people in the closet. The frogs definitely aren’t turning people queer, but rising social acceptance coupled with the boldness of youth means that we’re finally getting a more accurate picture of the size of the LGBTQ+ population.
And sadly, bisexual people of all genders still face rampant social stigma. (In fact, bisexual men are often told that their sexual orientation doesn’t even exist and that only women can be bi.) So my completely earnest, non-meme hope is that younger generations can help more millennials feel comfortable being ourselves.
After all, we’ve got a critical threshold to reach. As Gallup noted at the end of its report, “If current trends continue, it is likely that the proportion of LGBTQ+ identifiers will exceed 10% of U.S. adults at some point within the next three decades.” Ten percent! We can get there!
Basically, the writing is on the wall: by 2054, not being bisexual will be “cringe,” or whatever we’re calling it by then. It’s time for us to adult harder than ever before and get gayer before it’s too late.
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