LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER (LGBT) 2015 wOW! FACTs 13th Edition LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER (LGBT) Editor’s Note: Statistics in this section are based on those who have self-iden- tified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Because this is a population based on self-identification, research data in some categories is not available. Demographics Population Table 1: People Self-Identifying as LGBT in Four National Surveys (Percentage of U.S. Population)1 LGBT LGBT National Survey Age 18 & Older Age 18-44 National Survey of Family Growth, 2006–2010 Not Included 4.1 % General Social Survey, 2008, 2010, 2012 3.0 % 4.2 % National Health Interview Survey, 2014 2.2 % 2.8 % Gallup Daily Tracking Survey, 2014 4.0 % 5.6 % (The Williams Institute) 1 Discrimination remains a serious issue for the community due to anti-LGBT attitudes. Consequently, some respondents to surveys that ask for informa- tion on sexual orientation or gender identification are reluctant to respond truthfully. This hesitancy makes it difficult to estimate the size of the LGBT population accurately. • Less than 3 percent of the U.S. population identifies as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) 1 The Williams Institute is a national think tank at UCLA Law that conducts research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy. The chart compares the findings of “four large, national, population based surveys,” regarding the number of U.S. individuals who are LGBT. diversitybestpractices.com | 111 • Approximately 1.6 percent of adults self-identify as gay or lesbian and 0.7 percent as bisexual. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) • A substantial majority of adults — 96.6 percent — said they were het- erosexual in a 2013 survey. An additional 1.1 percent responded, “I don’t know the answer”, or said they were “something else.”2 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Table 2: Gay/Lesbian and Bisexual Americans in Four National Surveys (Percentage of U.S. Population)3 National Survey Gay/Lesbian Bisexual Age 18 Age Age 18 Age & Older 18-44 & Older 18-44 National Survey of Family Growth, Not Not 1.5 % 2.6 % 2006–2010 Included Included General Social Survey, 1.4 % 1.7 % 1.6 % 2.5 % 2008, 2010, 2012 National Health Interview Survey, 1.6 % 1.7 % 0.6 % 1.0 % 2014 Gallup Daily Tracking Survey, Not Not Not Not 2014 Included Included Included Included (The Williams Institute) • There are three main commonalities among individuals who identify as LGBT4: • A greater percentage of younger people identify as LGBT than older generations. • A greater percentage of LGBT adults are Black, Latino, or some other racial or ethnic minority when compared to the non-LGBT adult population. • A greater percentage of LGBT adults are located in the Northeast and West than in the South and Midwest.5 (The Williams Institute) • Twenty percent of Americans are attracted to members of the same sex.6 (National Bureau of Economic Research) • Neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the U.S. Census Bureau include transgender persons in their estimates. Gender identity and sexual orientation are two very different human characteris- tics. (Human Rights Campaign) • “Transgender” is independent of sexual orientation and describes indi- viduals whose gender identity (the sense of gender that every person feels inside) and/or gender expression (their behavior, clothing, haircut, voice, and body characteristics) is different from the sex assigned to them at birth. 112 | diversitybestpractices.com At some point in their lives, many transgender people decide they must live their lives as the gender they have always known themselves to be, and often transition to living as that gender.7 (Human Rights Campaign) • Estimating the number of transgender persons in the population is even more challenging than determining the size of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual communities. Many transgender people are afraid to self-identify and a large percentage are homeless. (Human Rights Campaign) • Forty-one percent of Black and 27 percent of Latina and Latino transgen- der and gender nonconforming respondents experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. (Human Rights Campaign) • Moreover, 40 percent of Black respondents and 45 percent of Latina and Latino respondents reported that they were denied access to shelters.8 (Human Rights Campaign) • It is estimated that there are 700,000 people in the transgender commu- nity, or .03 percent of the nation’s population.9 (The Williams Institute) Population and Geographic Distribution • The state with the largest percentage of people identifying as LGBT is Hawaii with 5.1 percent. However, the Hawaii figure is only half the percentage of Washington D.C., where 10 percent of its residents say they are LGBT10. (Nationwide Count) • North Dakota is the state with the lowest percentage, 1.7 percent.11 Tables 3 and 4 provide a sense of the geographical distribution of the LGBT community in the United States. (Nationwide Count) • Table 3 lists the 10 states and metropolitan areas with the highest percent- age of people self-identifying as LGBT. (Gallup and The New York Times) • Table 4 lists the 10 states and metropolitan areas with the lowest percent- age of people self-identifying as LGBT. The metropolitan area data comes from a ranking of nation’s 50 largest metro areas. (Gallup) Table 3: States12 and Metro Areas13 with the Highest Percentage of LGBT Americans Top 10 Top 10 # States % Metro Areas % 1 Hawaii 5.1% San Francisco 6.2% 2 Vermont 4.9% Portland, Oregon 5.4% 3 Oregon 4.9% Austin, Texas 5.3% 4 Maine 4.8% New Orleans 5.1% 5 Rhode Island 4.5% Seattle 4.8% 6 Massachusetts 4.4% Boston 4.8% diversitybestpractices.com | 113 7 South Dakota 4.4% Salt Lake City 4.7% 8 Nevada 4.2% Los Angeles 4.6% 9 California 4.0% Denver 4.6% 10 Washington 4.0% Hartford 4.6% Table 4: States14 and Metro Areas15 with the Lowest Percentage of LGBT Americans Top 10 Top 10 # States % Metro Areas % 50 West Virginia 3.1% Birmingham, Alabama 2.6% 49 Colorado 3.2% Pittsburgh 3.0% 48 Louisiana 3.2% Memphis 3.1% 47 Texas 3.3% Cincinnati 3.2% 46 North Carolina 3.3% Raleigh, North Carolina 3.2% 45 Missouri 3.3% San Jose, Calif. 3.2% 44 Maryland 3.3% Houston 3.3% 43 Alaska 3.4% Milwaukee 3.5% 42 Oklahoma 3.4% Nashville. 3.5% 41 Delaware 3.4% Richmond, Va. 3.5% Household • Approximately, 1,980,000 LGBT persons live with their partners as couples in households, and 780,000 of them are legally married. (The number of legally married couples tripled in 2014.) There are 390,000 same-sex married couples in the United States and 600,000 same-sex domestic partnerships. (Gallup) • As of May 2015, same-sex marriage was legal in 37 states and the District of Columbia.16 (Gallup) • Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents are raising two million children throughout the United States. Ninety-six percent of the U.S. counties have same-sex parents raising children.17 (National Journal) • Four percent (65,000) of the 1.6 million adopted children in the United States are growing up in a same-sex household. (National Journal) • Same-sex couples are responsible for 14,000 foster children or 3 percent of all foster children. (National Journal) • Approximately, 59 percent of same-sex parents are White, which is 14 per- centage points lower than the percentage of White, married heterosexual parents (73 percent). (National Journal) 114 | diversitybestpractices.com • Same-sex families are more ethnically and racially diverse than families headed by married heterosexual couples.18 (National Journal) • Many same-sex couples without children want to raise them, includ- ing almost two-thirds of lesbians, three-quarters of bisexual women, 57 percent of gay men, and 70 percent of bisexual men.19 (Movement Advancement Project) • The perception that LGBT people have higher incomes that non-LGBT is false when it comes to LGBT couples raising children. (Movement Advancement Project) • Same-sex couples raising children have lower incomes than heterosexual couples raising children. The average household income for same-sex couples raising children is $15,500, or 20 percent less than the average household incomes headed by heterosexual couples raising children. (Movement Advancement Project) • Children in same-sex households are twice as likely to live in poverty as households headed by heterosexual, married couples. (Movement Advancement Project) • While 9 percent of married different-sex couples with children live in poverty, 21 percent of male same-sex couples and 20 percent of female same-sex couples do. (Movement Advancement Project) • Black children living in same-sex households formed by Black men have a higher poverty rate (52.3 percent) than that of any other children in any other household type. There is also a disparity in house ownership.20 (Movement Advancement Project) • Although 71 percent of heterosexual couples with children own their homes, only 51 percent of same-sex parents do.21 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) • LGBT people living alone are more likely to have incomes below $12,000 than non-LGBT persons in the same situation. The $12,000 figure approximates the poverty guideline for one-person households released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in January 2015. People in one-person households with annual incomes less than $11,770 are said to be living in poverty.22 (The Williams Institute) diversitybestpractices.com | 115 Table 5: Percent of LGBT and Non-LGBT Persons in One-Person Households Living in Poverty23 Annual Income Non-LGBT LGBT Non-LGBT LGBT Below $12,000 Males Males Women Women All 13.4% 20.1% 19.1% 21.5% Less Than Age 65 16.6% 22.4% 21.3% 27.3% Age 65 and Older 9.7% 15.9% 17.7% 15.1 (National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce) • Transgender household incomes are well below the national averages, with 15 percent making less than $1,000.