By Michael C. Smith
Correspondent, The Alabama Baptist
Alabama is among the states with the lowest percentage of adults who identified themselves as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender), according to new research from Gallup.
Gallup found that 3 percent of Alabama residents polled in 2015 and 2016 identified as LGBT, tying for 47th among the 50 states. That’s a 0.2 percentage-point increase from 2012.
Vermont tops the ranking at 5.3 percent, followed by Massachusetts (4.9), California (4.9), Oregon (4.9) and Nevada (4.8).
The District of Columbia’s LGBT percentage (8.6) exceeds that of any of the states.
States with the lowest percentage of LGBT-identifying residents include South Dakota (2), North Dakota (2.7), Idaho (2.8), Arkansas (3) and South Carolina (3).
These findings are based on combined 2015 and 2016 data from more than 400,000 interviews. Consistent with Gallup research showing national increases in the percentage of adults identifying as LGBT (up from 3.5 percent in 2012 to 4.1 percent in 2016), the vast majority of states and the District of Columbia (42 out of 51) also reported increases. However, most of the state-level changes are not statistically significant.
At 3.6 percent, the Southeast region (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia) has the sixth-highest percentage of LGBT-identifying adults among the eight U.S. regions. That’s a 0.4 percentage-point increase from 2012–13.
The Pacific region, which includes the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii, has the highest percentage at 4.9. The Pacific region also had the largest percentage-point increase (0.7 points) from 2012–13 to 2015–16. This change bumped it ahead of the New England region (4.5 percent), which reported a 0.2-point increase.
The Middle Atlantic and Rocky Mountain regions also reported large increases (each 0.5 points). The West Central region continues to have the lowest percentage of people who identify as LGBT but also showed a relatively large gain from 2.9 to 3.4 percent.
According to Gallup, a variety of factors influence changes in the portion of adults identifying as LGBT over time.
Gallup research documents ongoing increases in the social acceptance of LGBT individuals in the United States. Growing public acceptance can affect and likely increase the willingness of LGBT individuals to identify as such on surveys.
Millennials’ acceptance
Nationally virtually all of the increases in LGBT identification during the past five years are among millennials. Their coming of age at a time of greater social acceptance toward LGBT individuals may contribute to disproportionate increases in LGBT identity across states. As the youngest millennials reach 18 and enter Gallup’s national adult surveys, their influence on the national survey estimates increases proportionally.
According to Gallup state-level rankings, the portion of adults identifying as LGBT clearly relates to the regional differences in LGBT social acceptance, which tend to be higher in the East and West and lower in the South and Midwest. States ranked in the bottom 10 for LGBT identification are dominated by those in the Midwest and South.
To read the complete Gallup report, visit www.gallup.com/poll/203513/vermont-leads-states-lgbt-identification.aspx.
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