Nearly half of Americans believe young people are influenced by pop culture to identify as LGBTQ: poll

Nearly half of Americans believe young people are influenced by pop culture to identify as LGBTQ — even if they aren't, according to a new poll.

Forty-eight percent of respondents said people ages 18 to 29 are being pushed to embrace an “LGBTQ+ identity” because of current popular trends, according to NORC’s Center for Public Affairs Research and the survey from the LA Times published Thursday.

Still, a large share (66%) said Americans under 30 are more likely to “openly identify” as gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer or transgender because it is more accepted by society. Today.

More than half of those surveyed (57%) agreed that social stigmas have prevented older generations from coming out – with many choosing instead to keep their LGBTQ+ identity a secret.

When asked specifically about transgender and non-binary people and why “some people feel their gender does not match the one they were assigned at birth,” more than half (53%) said they were either “socially influenced” or that it was a “lifestyle choice” – compared to 46% who said they were “born that way”.

Additionally, 40% of respondents say increased “political and media attention” to transgender and nonbinary Americans has been a “bad thing for society,” compared to 16% who said it has had an impact positive on society. Forty-two percent said this increased attention was neither good nor bad for society.

Elsewhere in the survey, 72% said they had friends, relatives or colleagues who personally told them they were gay or lesbian.

Thirty-seven percent admitted to knowing someone they “seriously suspect” of being homosexual, but that person has not told them their identity, according to the survey.

Additionally, 27% of respondents said a friend or relative had come out as transgender or non-binary, while only 12% said they suspected a loved one who identified as the opposite gender, or none at all.

Meanwhile, the poll also found that more than a third of Americans (77%) believe that elected officials “primarily use debates about transgender and non-binary people to distract from more pressing priorities.”

Only 21% of respondents believe that issues affecting transgender people are an “important priority” for elected officials, according to the survey.

Dan Malato, senior research director at the NORC Center, affiliated with the University of Chicago, said the poll replicated several questions from a 1985 survey conducted by the LA Times in an effort to better understand how attitudes to gender have changed over the past four decades.

“The 1985 survey data provided an invaluable benchmark for measuring how public opinion toward homosexuals
and the lesbian community has changed over the last 40 years,” Malato said.

“By also asking new questions about other LGBTQ+ groups, like bisexual, non-binary, and transgender people, the data is even more powerful for understanding perceptions of these communities today. »

The survey, funded by the California Endowment and conducted by the NORC Center, affiliated with the University of Chicago, was conducted among 1,624 Americans between January 18 and 26.

The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.