“Why are so many young people LGBTQ+?”
Umm…
No, but really though?
According to a Gallup poll released in 2022, a record 7.1% of adults in the U.S. identify
as LGBTQ+ but when broken down generationally, Gen Z- those born between 1997 and 2003- reported
a huge 21% identified as LGBTQ+ compared to just 10.5% of millennials, 4.2% of Gen Xers
and 2.6% of baby boomers.
- around 8% also declined to answer, so make of that what you will.
The same holds true for the UK, where the 2021 census found that more than half of LGB+
people are aged between 16 and 34.
Side note, don’t worry, if you’re looking at that headline and going- hang on, is that
transphobic?!
It’s just a way of saying ‘we’re specifically talking about sexual orientation’ that has
also been unfortunately co-opted to, when used in place of LGBT (ie.
the term we tend to use for the whole community in the UK) be trans-exclusionary by the very
nature of that glaring omission of the T.
So, question: is that because young people are gayer than previous generations?
NO!
- [nods and whispers yes]
But also are there by numbers more gay young people?
YES!
- [shakes head and says no]
Is that kind of muddy?
MAYBE!
- [shrugs in ‘I don’t know what to tell you’ then ‘don’t worry about it’]
Keep watching, I’ll explain…
ARE THE OLD PEOPLE LYING?
Firstly, we can argue that not everyone might even reply truthfully to the questionnaire-
who is more likely to reply truthfully?
Someone who was born and grew up in a time when being homosexual was illegal and crossing
gender barriers was deeply taboo, even if nowadays it isn’t, or someone who grew up
when gay families were legal and saw trans characters on TV?
You can’t help but have that sharp drop-off in people in older age groups identifying
as a minority sexual orientation raise questions about entrenched homophobic attitudes, including
internalised homophobia.
With increased visibility of different types of LGBTQ+ identities and access to information
through the internet, are younger adults just more comfortable identifying as LGBTQ+ to
an interviewer in a telephone survey, are they more likely to publicly label themselves
OR are we more likely to actually do the soul searching and see what’s inside?
Do older gay people even know they’re gay?
For American Gen Z’ers, most of you have grown up amid the Supreme Court's recognition
of same-sex marriage in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015.
- Fun fact, I actually met my wife the year same-sex marriage became legal in the UK,
so it’s nice that was always an option.
You can click a card here to see our love story.
And there have been definite shifts in acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities to go along with this
[headlines on screen: ], but for that to happen, previous generations had to pave the way.
IS THE WORLD GAYER NOW?
Yes.
It’s a rainbow.
The world is one big rainbow now (!)
- Meh.
More on that later…
According to Laura Westengard, coordinator of the gender and sexuality studies program
at the New York City College of Technology: Baby boomers and Gen Xers were at the front
lines of the LGBTQ liberation movement during the mid- to late 20th century and came out
of a "generation of repression, violence and institutionalisation.”
Those LGBTQ+ Baby Boomers lived through the 1969 Stonewall uprising, an event catalysed
by a police raid and brutality that became a turning point in LGBTQ rights.
It’s important to remember just how hard our elders had it.
- So, respect them!
Particularly because we don’t have a lot of them…
Previous generations sacrificed, protested and were active so we could benefit.
That’s opened up so many possibilities for us in terms of naming non-heteronormative
ways of being buuut… sometimes there CAN feel like a bit of a generational divide.
Particularly because we’re a culture that doesn’t tend to raise the next generation
in our homes.
- Tragically, most children of LGBTQ+ parents are… just ! [dramatic sob]
Unless we’re talking about our gaybies, the friends just starting out on their queer
journey who come to us for advice, we definitely do have a hand in raising them.
And I have loved ALL of my gaybies equally, but my advice has definitely improved since
I was a teenager- I deeply apologise to anyone who got a three hour long mix tape from one
of my gaybies.
That is what playlists are for!
Is the world gayer?
Well, it’s safer.
It’s just a place where you can more easily explore and then express who you are than
you could 50 years ago.
Our family, our unity and our fights continue: even though the proportion of LGBTQ adults
probably will keep growing as more Gen Zers enter adulthood, that’s going to seem pretty
scary to the conservative parts of the older generations who will then push back.
IS THE WORLD SCARY?
Um… yes?
But talking about it helps.
So…
Let’s talk about the sponsor of today’s video, Betterhelp, because on this channel
we believe taking care of your mental health is just as important as your physical health.
As an inclusive lesbian…
I believe everyone (no matter your age, gender, sexuality, race or disability status) should
be entitled to therapy.
And Betterhelp couldn’t agree more!
Betterhelp assess your needs and match you with a licensed therapist from the 1000s they
have available- so you’re sure to find a good match, even if you’re looking for a
specific type of therapist or someone who specialises in the particular area you’re
having trouble with right now.
Want to exclusively speak to LGBTQ+ therapists or those with a deep, intersectional understanding
of how being queer impacts the rest of your life?
Click that button!
And don’t worry if you don’t find the perfect match at first, because with Betterhelp
it’s like the best kind of dating app- you don’t have to break up with them in person,
just click a button to try someone new!
One of my favourite things about Betterhelp is that it’s accessible!
If you have time constraints because of a chronic illness, you can easily find appointments
with therapists available at times that suit you.
Plus Betterhelp takes away the travel time, which is ideal for me because I’m not always
feeling physically well enough to leave bed, but your betterhelp therapist won’t mind
if you take the call from the comfort of your own bed.
They can’t even tell if you’re wearing fuzzy bed socks!
All counsellors on the platform are trained, experienced and accredited - psychologists,
marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers and board licensed professional counsellors.
If you're interested in trying betterhelp head to the link in my description.
Betterhelp.com/jessicakellgrenfozard for 10 per cent off your first month.
IS IT AN INTERNET THING?
The biggest difference between Gen Z and all of the other generations has to be the shock
of being the first generation to come of age online.
I’m not a particularly old millennial so the internet was a huge part of my teenage
years but it was… pretty rubbish.
- And WOW was it unfiltered.
Content moderation?
Who is she?
I have seen and read things that I did NOT understand and occasionally have ‘oh my
god!’
moments where I realise that was… that was… my kids aren’t getting technology until
they can write me a ten page essay about the benefits of not clicking on every link!
BUT what I did have was access to a community network that didn’t require physical proximity
and LGBTQ content, even if it was just endless Buffy and Faith fanfiction!
We do well on the internet because we can finally connect.
We’re very spread out, you know: the gays.
Seeing as we are… everywhere.
- On every road…
In every city…
are we on every road?
I guess if you bring Generation Alpha into this, we probably are?
I’m intrigued to see their stats in twenty years.
The internet lets us seek out information from the privacy of our own homes- no sneaking
to the awkward back shelf of the library- and then hide that tab and not think about
it again if it isn’t the right answer for us.
It also brings new options that mean you don’t need to know the exact term of what you’re
looking for before you start searching.
It’s no longer “am I gay?” but now “well, I’m thinking I’m not straight.
I’m sure my TikTok For You page will eventually show me a video that recontextualises and
encapsulates my entire romantic being in one 10 second clip.”
- Second fun fact of the video: One constant across generations is that the majority of
LGBTQ+ people identify as bisexual.
In fact, more Gen Z and millennial respondents said they were bisexual than all other demographics
of the community combined: 11.5% of Gen Zers and 5.1% of millennials said they are attracted
to people of more than one gender, whereas a respective 5.3% and 4% identified as gay,
lesbian, or transgender.
One quirk in the Gallup survey, though, is that it does not identify how many people
who are transgender also identified as being part of the community in another way.
It is likely that some trans survey respondents are ALSO bisexual, gay, or lesbian.
- Will there be silly arguments that greater access to the internet and all its gayness
is MAKING young people gay?
Sure.
But silly arguments are made all the time [shrug]
You’re not taking on a fake LGBTQ+ identity because it’s cool online, you’re just
discovering part of yourself that you didn’t know was already inside thanks to better access
to the tools of self discovery and companionship.
In just 20 years we’ve gone from ‘homosexuality is problematic, don’t talk about it’ to
‘here are multiple children’s books about how some children have two mums or two dads’.
It doesn’t mean that life is golden and easy, it doesn’t mean no one has to ‘come
out’ anymore and it certainly doesn’t mean that everything is the same for everyone
around the world.
COULD IT BE THAT WE ARE MISSING PEOPLE?
‘homophobia’ isn’t the only answer to: “Where are all of the middle-aged queer
people?”, it also kind of… is.
Because at one point in time there was a pandemic that took more lives than it should have because
the medical response- and even the basic compassionate response- was slowed down by homophobia.
It was a crisis for our community.
Growing up there were two adults whose non-straightness made me feel better about my own: my aunt
and my godfather.
Only…
I didn’t actually get to grow up with my godfather.
He died when I was still a baby.
And I grew up knowing that it was especially horrific because as he died before my parents
eyes they couldn’t even tell anyone about it.
It just ‘wasn’t spoken about’ in the early 1990s.
Sadly, the AIDS epidemic took many, almost an entire generation of gay men.
This photo shows the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus in 1993, twelve years into the epidemic.
The seven men in white are the only surviving original members, the men in black represent
those who had died from AIDS.
The virus was first clearly identified in San Francisco in the early 1980s.
According to the Foundation for AIDS Research, the virus had killed more than 234,000 people
in the US by the end of 1993.
So yes, perhaps it isn’t so surprising that the number of Boomers and Gen X-ers who reply
as being LGBTQ+ on the survey is smaller.
When HIV / AIDS first emerged, gay male ‘baby boomers’ (born 1946-1964) were aged 34-16.
For them, the high number of AIDS deaths at the epidemic’s peak (1987-1996) shaped their
personal, social, psychological, and community lives, during the epidemic, throughout their
life course, and into later years.
10% of men aged 25-44 who identified as gay had died by 1995 and others would follow.
But this was unfolding in a political climate that was intensely hostile to gay men and
women, with conservative forces condemning people living with HIV / AIDS as ‘immoral’,
and President Reagan’s administration not only notoriously avoiding public mention of
AIDS until 1985 but outright laughing when members of the press brought it up, despite
the mounting death toll.
With disgusting levels of homophobia meaning the people in charge sat on their hands, it
was left to the community itself to organise, forming direct-action and medical research
groups like ACTUP, agitating for better responses from the scientific community, launching their
own public information campaigns and establishing community-based systems of care for people
with HIV / AIDS.
AIDS killed 324,029 men and women in the USA between 1987 and 1998 (death rates began to
drop in 1995, with the introduction of effective anti-retroviral medications in 1996 fuelling
this decline).
According to the World Health Organisation: Since the beginning of the epidemic, around
84.2 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 40.1 million people
have died of HIV.
Currently, in the region of 38.4 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2021 and
1.5 million new infections occurred in 2021.
THE WORLD DOESN’T SEEM THAT GAY TO ME NOW THOUGH?
Fair point.
It’s not like a large number of younger people identifying as LGBTQ+ magically makes
the world or even this generation free from oppression and the challenges related to gender
and sexuality.
That would be wildly out there!
- I hate to break it to you but it’s largely old and rather conservative people running
the world(!)
But at least we get to be the old people who run everything one day!
I am intrigued as to what my children are going to do that surprises me or seems baffling.
My occupation is literally: YouTuber.
- and yes, that is acceptable to the tax man.
I was surprised too.
What is Rupert going to dream of doing that makes me say “hmm… not sure about that…
it’s a bit out there…”: [beat, blink]
Book binder?
Oh lord, YOU has ruined book binding for me!
Okay…
World’s Strongest Man.
He currently wants to spend his time doing ballet, baking or quietly playing with his
dolls house so if he does turn to steroids, massive tattooed biceps and yelling incoherently
whilst throwing rocks around at least I get to break out this face:
- [pleasantly amused] I did not see this coming…
this is fun.
But I also know that he’s in the particularly cushy position of having parents who don’t
have life goal expectations for him and that Gen Alpha have mainly Millennials for parents
and they’re going to be stepping into Gen Z’s world-changing footsteps.
Wow, I wish I was a Gen Alpha.
Millennials just get hated by newspapers and… avocado toast.
My point- meandering though it is, is that although headlines when research like this
comes out makes it seem like the world is just rainbows and sparkles for those of us
who are queer.
Young LGBTQ+ people today still face anti-trans bills around the world, as well as legislation
targeting even conversations around sexuality and gender identity in schools in the US.
Meanwhile, books with LGBTQ characters have been disproportionately targeted in a wave
of book-banning.
Experts say that in the US the overturning of Roe v. Wade could open the door to the
reconsideration and reversal of other established rights, including marriage equality.
And, oh yes, this is very much NOT the whole world…
- But still: the future’s bright, the future’s rainbow.
Civic engagement is deeply important.
Vote in every election you can and get involved before polling day too.
Get queer people and open allies who support LGBTQ+ issues into positions of power.
And then bother them if they don’t live up to their promises.
- I’m not here for ‘oh I don’t vote, they’re all the same’, ‘oh I’m not
interested in politics’- well that’s nice, but you will be when you’re losing your
rights and freedoms(!)
Even being part of your own local LGBTQ+ community and keeping it alive intergenerationally is
important.
Learn the stories of your elders and pass them down.
Stonewall, the AIDS crisis, the legalisation of gay marriage…
there are always battles and there always will be.
But now at least we don’t have to be ashamed of who we are.
And now we know how powerful we can be when we stand together.
To my mind, people fall into two categories: it was hard for me so it should be hard for
you.
OR: it was hard for me so I want to make it easier for you.
Now, we can argue all day about the rights and wrongs of putting your own moral code
onto other people but…
I can’t help but feel that the second group is the one who can bring a more positive benefit
to society.
Hopefully a society where eventually all feel truly welcome.
So there you go, that;’s my take on why the world feels a little bit gayer now.
What would you like to add?
Let me know in the comments below.
Try to keep it civil and respond with kindness.
I do very enjoy your very wise cracks at homophobic comments that get left on my videos.
I should probably do a video where I just read out the best responses to homophobia
that get on my channel.
If you haven't already subscribed but you do watch my video and occasionally leave your
responses to homophobic comments please do remember to subscribe!
Just click the button down below.
Thank you again to Betterhelp for sponsoring today’s video.
Remember to click the link in the description, betterhelp.com/jessicakellgrenfozard, that’s
betterhelp as in h-e-l-p and then my name, for 10% off your first month.