Twenty percent of millennials say they’re LGBTQ, and 12 percent are either transgender or gender-nonconforming, according to a new Harris Poll surveyconducted for the activist group GLAAD.
Of all generations, millennials are the least likely to say they’re straight, the poll found.
And millennials also reported numerous gender identities: Three percent said they were agender; 3 percent, gender fluid; 2 percent, transgender; 2 percent, unsure or questioning; 1 percent bigender; and 1 percent genderqueer.
“This could be attribute to increasingly accepting environments, wherein for many people, family rejection is less frequent, job security is less at risk, and overall safety is less of a concern when coming out,” said their study, explaining the unprecedented findings.
Though pollsters agree that more Americans—and more millennials, especially– are identifying as LGBT, they disagree about the numbers. When it came to the percent of LGBTQ adults under 35, the Harris Poll’s findings were nearly three times higher than a Gallup survey released in January.
— Jillian Kay Melchior writes for Heat Street and is a fellow for the Steamboat Institute and the Independent Women’s Forum.