A majority of Gen Z Americans identify as LGBTQIA+, new poll finds
They’re here, they’re queer, no big deal.
Close to six in 10 people under the age of 30 now identify as something other than boring old heterosexual, a new survey revealed.
Dating app Feeld polled more than 3,000 users from 71 countries to compile the study.
The new generation has an “openness to exploring more fluid ways of being,” said Dr. Justin Lehmiller, a social psychologist at Indiana University, who led the research.
And while the naughty networking tool might skew towards those interested in the “alternative relationship model,” the findings seem to mirror other studies that show a rising number of younger people thinking outside the sexual box.
A 2023 Gallup poll, for example, found that 22.3 percent of Gen Z Americans identified as LGBTQIA+, the Daily Mail reported — double the number from seven years previous.
Feeld users can select from 19 different options, ranging from bi to demiromantic, the latter classified by the app as the “need to establish a strong emotional or sexual connection with a partner before they feel a romantic connection to them.”
“What is also striking is how, compared to the national average, the Feeld community seems to be a lot more open to exploring, defining, and redefining who they really are,” Dr. Lehmiller said.
Use of Feeld, which did not release membership numbers, skyrocketed 65 percent between 2021 and 2022, the New York Times reported earlier.
Meanwhile, the 2023 Gallup findings showed older generations to be not quite so liberated.
Just 9.8% of millennials, or those born between 1981 and 1996, said they were something other than straight.
For Gen Xers, that number shrinks to 4.5%, while for Boomers, it’s a mere 2.3%.
“Each younger generation is about twice as likely as the generation that preceded it to identify as LGBTQ+,” the pollster reported at the time.
The olds may have the last laugh, however — earlier reporting on the Feeld study stated that Gen Xers and millennials are more sexually active, to the tune of five horizontal mambos danced per month to Gen Z’s less robust three.