The research conducted by the Arizona Christian University surveyed 600 people aged between 18 and 37 and found that 30% of them identified as queer, gay, lesbian bisexual or transgender.
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More progressive ways of thinking
40% of those who said they considered themselves part of the LGBTQ+ community were aged between 18 and 24. That very same demographic was also largely in favour of more progressive politics than conservative ones with one in three millennials having attended at least one social justice protest.
All in all, the study found that this group of people in society were 'anti-establishment, unpatriotic, pro-freedom of religion, and desperately trying to find a purpose in life.'
Cultural and generational shifts
Theories for why more people have come forward with their sexual identities have been attributed to more mass media visibility as well as the many changes in laws within political ideologies overtime. George Barna, Director of Research at the Cultural Research Center for Arizona Christian University believes that the data collected in this study will aid in better understanding generational shifts. He explained that:
Rather than blasting them for a range of perceived inadequacies, perhaps we can support them with perspective, solutions, resources, and encouragement.
Meanwhile, Dulcinea Pitagora, a New York City-based psychotherapist, who specialises in working specifically with sexually marginalised groups explains that:
The more people who feel comfortable and safe in disclosing who they are, the more others will disclose, and the more people will be living authentically as who they are in the world.
And added:
Also the more awareness [there is] around how many queer people there actually are in the world, the more people will realise the great diversity in the queer community, and the more non-queer people will realize they have more in common with queer people than they may have realised.
