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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

Yes.

In Gallup polling done in 2022, 19.7% of Gen Z respondents identified as LGBT, according to results released in February 2023.

Bisexual identifications accounted for 13.1%. The remaining identifications were gay (3.4%), lesbian (2.2%), transgender (1.9%), and other (1.5%), which included queer and pansexual identifications.

The question, asked in telephone interviews of more than 10,000 U.S. residents age 18 and older, was:

“Which of the following do you consider yourself to be? You can select as many as apply. Straight or heterosexual; Lesbian; Gay; Bisexual; Transgender.”

The percentage by generation (birth years shown) answering LGBT:

Generation Z (1997-2004): 19.7%

Millennials (1981-1996): 11.2%

Generation X (1965-1980): 3.3%

Baby boomers (1946-1964): 2.7%

Silent Generation (1945 and earlier): 1.7%

An April 2023 report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, using 2021 data, found that 26% of U.S. high school students identified as other than heterosexual, up from 11% in 2015.

See a full discussion of this at Wisconsin Watch

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Gallup US LGBT Identification Steady at 7.2%

Centers for Disease Control Overview and Methods for the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System — United States, 2021

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Tom Kertscher joined as a Wisconsin Watch fact checker in January 2023 and contributes to our collaboration with the The Gigafact Project to fight misinformation online. Kertscher is a former longtime newspaper reporter, including at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who has worked as a self-employed journalist since 2019. His gigs include contributing writer for PolitiFact and sports freelancer for The Associated Press.