Gallup Says 9% LGBTQ+ and Washington Smells a Fundraising Opportunity

The Red Hat Saloon smells like hickory smoke, hot grease, and bad decisions, which is also the official perfume of modern politics. The TV is hollering, the fryer is popping like fireworks in a Walmart parking lot, and Gallup just tossed another log on the national culture-war grill.

Gallup estimates 9% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ+

Gallup’s report (dated February 16, 2026) pegs 9% of U.S. adults as identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something other than heterosexual. In the same data, 86% identify as heterosexual and 5% did not give a response. Three numbers, one country, and everybody already arguing like it’s a tailgate scoreboard.

The trendline is the part people pretend not to see. Gallup says the 9% figure is essentially unchanged from last year, but it is more than double the 3.5% measured in 2012, the first year Gallup tracked this. They also note the U.S. sat around roughly 7% from 2021 through 2023.

How the number was measured

This was not a vibes survey conducted outside a kombucha bar. Gallup bases the estimate on 2025 telephone interviews done by ReconMR with a random sample of 13,454 adults across all 50 states and D.C., with a reported ±1 percentage point margin of sampling error at the 95% confidence level. If you dislike the reading, yelling at the thermometer is still not medicine.

Young adults are driving the jump

The growth is not coming from your uncle Earl who thinks Wi‑Fi is a government dairy product. In Gallup’s latest breakdown:

• 23% of adults under 30 identify as LGBTQ+
• 10% of adults 30 to 49 identify as LGBTQ+
• 3% or less of adults 50 and older identify as LGBTQ+

Bisexual is the biggest slice

Gallup says the largest share of LGBTQ+ adults identify as bisexual, making up more than half of the subgroup and about 5% of the entire U.S. adult population. They report 17% of LGBTQ+ adults identify as gay, 16% as lesbian, and 12% as transgender, each representing between 1% and 2% of all U.S. adults. Another 6% cite another identity such as queer or pansexual.

Gallup also notes bisexual identification has grown sharply since 2020, rising from 3.1% of U.S. adults to the current 5.3%.

Politics turns identities into donor funnels

Gallup reports Democrats are much more inclined than Republicans to identify as LGBTQ+, pointing to alignment with party stances on same-sex marriage and other gay rights issues as a likely reason. They also note one of the smallest increases since 2012 is among Republicans, from 1.5% in 2012 to 1.9% today.

And here’s where I start sweating like a bald eagle over a hot propane tank: the professional activist class and the fundraising class treat these numbers like gasoline. They pour it on school boards, HR departments, and court fights, then act shocked when everything smells like smoke.

So yes, Gallup says 9% of adults identify as LGBTQ+. Fine. Put it on the scoreboard. Learn from it. Just don’t let career scolders and consultant empires turn it into a permanent emergency that clogs the courts and distracts the country from the basics. Now pass the brisket. Live free, grill hard, and do not apologize.