I was bored so I looked up information to see what percentage of Mericans know someone who is gay or transgender.
The numbers come from a Pew Research Center survey done in 2016.
The research broke down the population demographically and found that:
Nearly nine-in-ten U.S. adults (87%) say they know someone who is gay or lesbian. Far fewer (30%) say they know someone who is transgender.
Age seems to play a large role in knowing someone who is transgender…
Americans ages 65 and older are much less likely than younger adults to say they know someone who is transgender. Only 16% of those in the 65-and-older cohort know a transgender person, compared with at least twice as many of those in each younger age group.
Here is a breakdown by group, who know a gay or transgender person:
I was just curious when I decided to look up these numbers. I do not have data in front of me on the exact differences of the poll at earlier times, but I can anecdotally relate that the percentages of knowing someone gay has grown over the decades. I know when I came out in 1987 far fewer people who I met and came out to admitted to me that they knew someone else gay… now it seems a lot more common.
So what can be taken from this data at one point in time?
Anything jump out at you worthy of discussion?
For me one of the more interesting findings comes from an examination of my fellow Jewish folks… we’re one of/are the highest population per religious breakdown to know someone gay and someone transgender.