How many people are LGBT?

Increasing number of population-based surveys in the United States and across the world are including questions that allow for an estimate of the size of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population. Problems with accuracy are writhed with discrepancy in these surveys. Larger samples, confidentiality and anonymity will increase the likelihood of LGBT respondents to identify themselves--producing more precise estimates. It is also challenging to research and measure the LGBT community because of the lack of consistent questions asked on different surveys. Willingness of respondents to report stigmatizing identities and behaviors also affect the variation among estimates of LGBT population.

In measuring sexual orientation, lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals may be identified strictly based on their self-identity or it may be possible to consider same-sex behavior or sexual attraction. Some surveys also access household relationships and provide a way of identifying those who are in same-sex relationships. Defining the transgender population can be challenging because of the varying forms of gender expression or non-conformity. Self-identity is one way to measure the transgender community. 

Federal data sources designed to provide the American Community Survey do not include direct questions regarding sexual orientation or gender identity. This leaves findings from combined population-based surveys the only current mechanism to produce credible estimates for the size of the LGBT community.

Some of the key findings from this research follows:
An estimated 3.5% of adults in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and an estimated 0.3% of adults are transgender. This implies that there are approximately 9 million LGBT Americans.

Among adults who identify as LGBT, bisexuals comprise a slight majority (1.8% compared to 1.7% who identify as lesbian or gay). Women are substantially more likely than men to identify as bisexual. Bisexuals comprise more than half of the lesbian and bisexual population among women and conversely, gay men comprise substantially more than half of gay and bisexual men in many of the surveys.

Estimates of those who report any lifetime same-sex behavior and any same-sex sexual attraction are substantially higher than estimates of those who identify as LGBT. An estimated 19 million Americans (8.2%) report that they have engaged in same-sex sexual behavior and nearly 25.6 million Americans (11%) acknowledge at lease some same-sex sexual attraction. There are also nearly 700,000 transgender individuals in the US. Given these findings, it seems reasonable to assert that approximately 9 million Americans identify as LGBT.

By way of comparison, these analyses suggest that the size of the LGBT community is roughly equivalent to the population of New Jersey. The number of adults who have had same-sex sexual experiences is approximately equal to the population of Florida while those who have some same-sex attraction comprise more individuals than the population of Texas.

Understanding the size of the LGBT population is the first step in promoting public policy as well as research topics. The LGBT community has been vastly understudied. Current surveys are demonstrating the viability of sexual orientation and gender identity at the national, state, and local level. This will greatly raise awareness and better enable an understanding of the LGBT community.

Children's Psychosexual Development

Clarifying aspects of sexual development can eliminate confusion in people's minds. Researchers distinguish between gender identity, sex roles, sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation.

Gender identity refers to a child's self-labeling as either "male" or "female" along with the knowledge that this is a stable, permanent attribute. Research indicates that most children have acquired an accurate, stable gender identity by age three. Their gender identity is highly resistant to change and is based upon what people around them tell them they are.

The development of both sex role stereotypes and sex-typed behaviors is a more gradual, flexible process. Sex roles refer to the child's conception of how members of each sex should behave. Young children (under 4-5 years) are likely to judge the appropriateness of a behavior according to their desire to engage in the behavior. Somewhat older children (around 6 years) develop fairly rigid stereotypical sex role conceptions. Finally, adolescents and adults develop more flexible sex role notions.

Sex-typing refers to the extent to which a child chooses to exhibit or inhibit various sex role stereotyped behaviors. The factors which affect the development of sex roles and sex-typing have not been fully delineated. It is believed that a combination of social factors influences the child: parental reinforcement, social pressure, modeling and imitation of parents, peers and television characters. The child's own cognitive development and biological predisposition also seem to play a role.

Sexual orientation, unlike gender identity, is not necessarily established early in childhood. The causes or factors influencing the development of sexual orientation are by no means fully understood. However, homosexuality is not considered to be the result of an inversion of gender identity. Sexual orientation, like sex roles and sex-typing, is more fluid and amenable to social shaping although recent research emphasizes the biological contributions.

A number of researchers have studied to development of gender identity, sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation among children of lesbian mothers. Green (1978) studied children of both transsexual and lesbian parents. He found that all children had a gender identity consistent with their biological sex and that they engaged in stereotypical and gender appropriate sex-typed behaviors.

Researchers also compared the development of children of lesbian and single heterosexual mothers and found that sexual orientation of the mother was not a factor in the children's development of gender identity, sex-typed behaviors or sexual orientation.

The general consensus among researchers is that children raised by lesbian mothers develop an appropriate gender identity, follow typical developmental patterns of acquiring sex role concepts and sex-typed behaviors, and generally develop a heterosexual orientation. Although these results follow a traditional pattern, this should not be taken to imply that in individual cases other outcomes such as the development of more androgynous sex-typed behavior or a homosexual orientation is possible.

The scientific literature indicates that being raised by a lesbian mother does not impair a child's psychosexual or psychosocial development. In fact it suggests that children of lesbian mothers may become more tolerant than others of cultural and individual diversity. The most likely result would be that the child will grow up with a balanced understanding of homosexuality without homophobia.