LGBTQ adults in the United States are mostly women, religious, and under 40 years old, according to a new survey conducted by Whitman Insight Strategies and BuzzFeed News.
The poll, taken by 880 LGBTQ Americans across the country, is one of the most thorough surveys of its type, asking more than 100 questions about gender, sex, politics, family, and discrimination.
LGBTQ people make up about 4% to 5% of the United States, but there have been few major national polls to date on how they differ from each other and live their lives.
The results seems to affirm some stereotypes and studies, like that lesbian and bisexual women are smoking more, while gay men are drinking more. The poll finds that gay men also have more sex than lesbian women, while other findings may be more surprising: More than half of LGBTQ Americans are Christian, and nearly half of all LGBTQ people identify as bisexual or queer.
LGBTQ Americans are often described as a "community," and historically, LGBTQ people have faced similar types of discrimination for failing to meet strict gender norms.
But the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people can be starkly different — as this poll reveals. When a bisexual man in Texas was asked what it meant to be LGBTQ, he responded: “I’m not trying to be a part of that movement. However, I don’t knock them for that.” A lesbian in New Hampshire felt differently, and said she’s “part of a vast beautiful community that has an incredibly rich history, even though there are people who would like to erase it.”