Issue Summary:
Being part of the LGBTQIA+ community is something that a relatively stable percentage of the human population has been experiencing for at least thousands of years across all races, nations, and parts of the globe. However, for most of that time it has not been adequately studied or communicated about due to the following:
1. A lack of technological scientific means to adequately explore it.
2. Various historical cultural and religious reasons relating to lack of knowledge, lack of understanding, and the subsequent fear that has been generated by the unknown.
We are now at a point in our science and technology where it is easier to examine and study detailed human physiological and developmental factors more in depth, and the facts are really only beginning to be revealed more clearly and to be communicated on a more widespread basis.
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Q: Is being LGBTQIA+ an “ideology”? Or a “choice”?
A: No. It is neither one. The word ideology refers to an idea, belief, principle, theory, or manner of thinking. Being an individual who is part of the LGBTQIA+ community is not an idea or a thought. It is the person’s physical state resulting from a complex interplay of genes, hormones, chromosomes, cellular composition, and fetal development factors (see articles immediately below). A person who is part of the LGBTQIA+ community is an individual who has multi-faceted physiological factors that affect their sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or level of sexual interest (or lack thereof). These factors are part of their body and brain and help constitute who they are as a whole. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community are human beings who have developed in ways that make them different from the majority of people specifically in terms of the realms of sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or level of sexual interest, but they have developed and exist as the individuals they are, and have a right to be who they are, express who they are, and live their own lives, just like everyone else.
Most individuals who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community report that being part of this community is not a choice, it’s just part of who they are, but that expressing who they are outwardly in society is the only “choice” they really have in the matter. Not expressing themselves as who they are and hiding these aspects of who they are (in order to be accepted or to avoid abuse, for example), can make for a very difficult, limiting, lonely, and unfulfilling human existence.
From the journal Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/518288a
From the journal Science: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aat7693
https://theconversation.com/stop-calling-it-a-choice-biological-factors-drive-homosexuality-122764#
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Q: What does “LGBTQIA+” stand for?
A: Science, social research, and experience with individuals has shown us that there is a wide range of types of sexualities and gender identities that individuals feel describe themselves. The range is more of a spectrum with certain typical commonly understood points along that spectrum (see terms below), but there are many people who don’t feel they fit into one “category” or another. Just as many factors can impact a person’s sexuality and/or gender identity, the specific impacts and degree of those impacts vary as well.
Lesbian; Gay; Bisexual; Transgender; Queer/Questioning; Intersex; Asexual
(Descriptions below from the GLAAD Media reference Guide, 11th Edition:
https://glaad.org/reference/terms )
Lesbian – A woman whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other women. Some lesbians may prefer to identify as gay (adj.) or as gay women.
Gay – An adjective used to describe a person whose enduring physical, romantic, and/ or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex (e.g., gay man, gay people). Sometimes lesbian (n. or adj.) is the preferred term for women.
Bisexual – An adjective used to describe a person who has the potential to be physically, romantically, and/or emotionally attracted to people of more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, or to the same degree.
Transgender – An adjective to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. [Discussed more fully separately under “Transgender Community” topic]
Queer – An adjective used by some people, particularly younger people, whose sexual orientation is not exclusively heterosexual (e.g. queer person, queer woman). Typically, for those who identify as queer, the terms lesbian, gay, and bisexual are perceived to be too limiting and/or fraught with cultural connotations they feel do not apply to them. When Q is seen at the end of LGBT, it typically means queer. In a setting for support, particularly for youth, it may mean questioning.
Intersex – An adjective used to describe a person with one or more innate sex characteristics, including genitals, internal reproductive organs, and chromosomes, that fall outside of traditional conceptions of male or female bodies. Do not confuse having an intersex trait with being transgender. Intersex people are assigned a sex at birth — either male or female — and that decision by medical providers and parents may not match the gender identity of the child.
The following documentary, Every Body, by Julie Cohen is an excellent educational vehicle about the intersex community which gives voice to a group of real individuals who are intersex (for ages 15+):
The Every Body documentary can be found on Prime Video, Apple TV, Peacock Premium Plus, Fandango at Home, Youtube, and GooglePlay Movies.
Asexual – An adjective used to describe a person who does not experience sexual attraction (e.g., asexual person). Sometimes shortened to “ace.”
Additionally: Nonbinary – Nonbinary is an adjective used by people who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the binary gender categories of man and woman. Many nonbinary people also call themselves transgender and consider themselves part of the transgender community. Others do not. Nonbinary is an umbrella term that encompasses many different ways to understand one’s gender.
NOTE: Always ask a person how they describe themselves before assigning them to any “category.”
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Q: Approximately what portion of the general population is part of the LGBTQIA+ community?
A: Worldwide it is difficult to compile an accurate estimate of the total number of people who are LGBTQIA+ because there is no worldwide census, many countries do not carry out a census very often, and some countries do not yet collect data regarding LGBTQIA+ status. Some countries still do not accept LGBTQ individuals and would persecute people for identifying as such, so free self-disclosure is not always possible. However, a conservative estimate from Gayther (a global community resource “designed for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and all groups with non-traditional gender and sexual identities, collectively known as the LGBTQIA+ Community”) conservatively estimates that the worldwide average is 2.6% of the population.
In the United States, based on 2020-2021 CDC health-related survey data, approximately 5.5% of American adults identified themselves as LGBT. That translates to a little greater than one person out of every 20 people in the United States.
The percentage by age group consistently decreased from the youngest groups to the older groups. Approximately 15.2% of the youngest adult age group self-identified as LGBT, whereas only 1.8% of the oldest age group self-identified as LGBT. This perhaps indicates that as the culture has become somewhat more knowledgeable and communicative about the LGBT community, and there are more adults comfortable expressing themselves in public as LGBT, younger groups have more experience and acceptance of the LGBT community than those who grew up in a less accepting culture where people had to hide their true sexuality or gender identity from others. Additionally, younger groups today have been more likely involved in self-exploration as part of their developmental processes of youth and may be more aware and open to the possibility that they may find that they identify as LGBT themselves.
From the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law: https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/adult-lgbt-pop-us
(https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/about/who-we-are/)
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Q: Is there any truth to the claim that people in the LGBTQ+ community engage in “grooming” children and/or are sexually abusive to children?
A: No. Research has shown that there is no correlation between being an LBTQ+ person and committing sexual abuse of children. On the contrary, research indicates that the vast majority of child sexual abuse crimes are committed by heterosexuals. Crimes of this sort have not been shown to be associated with LGBTQ+ people in any greater proportion than the percentage of the population that they comprise, which is to say they are no more likely than anyone else to commit these types of crimes.
From the fact-checking Politifact: https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/may/11/why-its-not-grooming-what-research-says-about-gend/
From the journal Pediatrics: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/94/1/41/59154/Are-Children-at-Risk-for-Sexual-Abuse-by?redirectedFrom=fulltext
An important article to read in conjunction with the above articles for greater context, is the following from the U.S. Department of Justice about the rates of violence against people who are LGBTQ+:
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Q: Is being LGBTQIA+ harmful to anyone?
A: Not any more so than being a heterosexual person who is fully in alignment with the gender they were assigned at birth. Being LGBTQIA+ is a natural physiological state that happens to be different in some ways from the natural physiological states of the majority of people. Neither is inherently harmful. What causes harm is not who you are, but how you act. It is harmful to act in ways that hurt another individual, including not treating others with basic human respect and dignity.
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Q: Why do people want to direct books and information about the LGBTQ+ community to children? Aren’t small children too young to be taught about sexuality?
A: Children of course should be taught about sex and sexuality when it is age-appropriate to do so. The goal of introducing people from the LGBTQ community to children is NOT to teach them about sex and sexuality. The goal is to teach them that there are all kinds of different people that exist in the world, all kinds of families and family structures, and that all people are deserving of respect and dignity for who they naturally are. This helps children understand the world around them better, feel more accepted themselves, and it prevents the bullying and abuse of others who may be different from a given child. This can be easily done with young children (and should be done) without going specifically into the concepts of sexuality, which is not age appropriate.
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Q: What is an LGBTQIA+ “ally”?
A: An ally of the LGBTQIA+ community is someone who accepts and supports members of the LGBTQIA+ community as fellow human beings who deserve respect, dignity, love, and equal human rights, and helps them stand strong against prejudice, disinformation, discrimination, and abuse. An ally can be a family member, friend, coworker, neighbor, teacher, acquaintance, or even a stranger who stands by and supports those in the LGBTQIA+ community and treats them with respect and compassion.
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