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A growing body of social research has shown that the younger the generation, the more queer people are.
In a recent study, market research firm YouGov asks British adults to plot themselves on the 1940s Kinsey sexuality scale, where the number zero represents an exclusively heterosexual person and the number six represents an exclusively homosexual person.
Although 89 percent of the participants described themselves as heterosexual, the results in the 18 to 24-year-old range revealed that about one in two young people say they are not 100 percent heterosexual.
As the chart above shows, 43 percent of the younger generation places their sexuality on a non-binary level, revealing that each generation sees their sexuality as less set in stone.
And when YouGov conducted the study for American adults, they found similar results. In the United States, one in three Americans classify themselves as not 100 percent heterosexual. “The older someone is, the less likely they are to say that they have fluid sexual attractions. 24% of people aged 30 to 44 say that they’re somewhere on the scale of bisexuality, compared to 8% or less of over 45s,” reports YouGov.
READ MORE: Carrie Fisher Raised Her Daughter Gender-Neutral; Why You Should, Too
These trends continue the younger the generation gets.
Trend forecasting agency J. Walter Thompson Innovation Group released a new survey of Americans aged 13 to 20 years old, also known as Generation Z. This survey shows that this generation is even more open-minded than the millennial generation of 21 to 34 year olds. According to the study, only 48 percent of Gen Z youth identify as exclusively heterosexual, compared to 65 percent of older millennials.
Additionally, the J. Walter Thompson Innovation Group found that 56 percent of Gen Z say they know someone who goes by a gender neutral pronoun, such as “they,” “them” or “ze.” Only 43 percent of millennials could say the same.
READ MORE: Forget Barbie and G.I. Joe: Buy Your Kids Gender-Neutral Toys
“We did a survey of Gen Z for a report released in May 2015 and found that 81 percent said that gender doesn’t define a person as much as it used to,” Shepherd Laughlin, the director of trendspotting at J. Walter Thompson, tells Vice.
Over a third of Gen Z respondents also feel like gender doesn’t define a person as much as it used to, many of them say they reject the gender binary while shopping for clothes and 70 percent of them support the push for gender neutral bathrooms.
READ MORE: The Real Cost of Gender-Neutral Restrooms
And although the study on sexual fluidity is currently not extensive enough to extend to countries outside the United Kingdom and the United States, it does show how a country’s social atmosphere can determine a population’s mindset.
In the United States alone, milestones such as the ban against gay conversion therapy in five states, including California, Oregon and Illinois, the legalization of gay marriage and the increasing number of terminology to describe at least 58 genders have helped change the way people see sexuality.
The fact that more people prefer not to identify with the extreme ends of the sexuality spectrum shows an increasing acceptance and acknowledgement of queer communities.
This can also be seen in the way celebrity figures like Ellen DeGeneres, who came out as a lesbian in 1997, have been accepted today as a fan favorite. She was even awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 for her constant efforts to, as former President Barack Obama said, “challenge our own assumptions [and] remind us that we have more in common than we realize.”
I love Ellen Degeneres. The way she refuses to stoop down to hateful levels & never makes people laugh at the expense of other’s feelings.
— Taylor Swift (@TSwiftNeedsYou) January 4, 2017
READ MORE: Ellen DeGeneres Tears up at Obama’s Medal of Freedom Ceremony (VIDEO)
While Ellen DeGeneres was one of the first celebrities to come out as lesbian during her time, today the younger generation has become more outspoken about its sexuality.
Miley Cyrus, who founded the Happy Hippie Foundation to support homeless youth and the LGBTQ community, came out as genderqueer in 2015. And just recently, 15-year-old “Girl Meets World” star Rowan Blanchard revealed that she identifies as queer because she is “open to liking any gender in the future.”
And like many young celebrities, Blanchard is very open about her support for the LGBTQ community.
I believe in my generation. I believe in girls. I believe in women. I believe in people of color. I believe in LGBTQ+ community. I believe. pic.twitter.com/dNsoZosV5n
— Rowan Blanchard (@RowanBlanchard) November 11, 2016
So even if these statistics don’t necessarily imply that there’s a growing number of LGBTQ people, it does show how the increased visibility of queer communities influences the level of open-mindedness people have.
In the midst of our divided political climate, open-mindedness is just what we need.
READ MORE: Why You Should Stop Trying to ‘Fix’ Your Intersex Children
