Commentary: LGBT and the malleability of culture — Part 1

On Feb. 24, 2021, the Gallup organization released the results of a poll conducted in 2020 of 15,000 American adults 18 and older. The poll dealt with the issue of sexual orientation, asking poll respondents to identify their sexual preference. Of the adults polled, 5.6 percent self-identified as LGBT, compared to 4.5 percent in a similar poll released in 2017.

While many might assert that the increase in the number of Americans identifying as LGBT in the 2020 survey as compared to 2017 is a product of the increasing acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle by the general populace, I suspect there is something else going on here. That something else is best illustrated by Gallup’s breakdown of the poll’s respondents by age grouping.

The percentage of respondents identifying as LGBT by age group was as follows:

Generation Z (1997-2002): 15.9 percent

Millennials (1981-1996): 9.1 percent

Generation X (1965-1980): 3.8 percent

Baby boomers (1946-1964): 2.0 percent

Traditionalists (before 1946): 1.3 percent

The poll found that those identifying as LGBT had increased 74.7 percent from the Millennial Generation to Generation Z (9.1 percent versus 15.9 percent), a group that was barely represented in the 2017 study. The number of American adults identifying as LGBT appears to be increasing each year. And it appears that those increases are primarily driven by the increased representation of the youngest survey respondents.

Not surprisingly, the Gallup data reveals that the more one leans to the Left politically, the greater the likelihood that a person self-identifies as LGBT. When asked to identify their political affiliation, the data showed that the breakdown of those identifying as LGBT was as follows:

Democrat: 8.8 percent

Independent: 6.5 percent

Republican: 1.7 percent

Those identifying themselves as Democrats are in excess of five times more likely than those identifying as Republicans to also identify as LGBT.

While younger voters are more likely to register or lean toward Democratic than Republican, the representation of young Democrats in the Gallup data does not appear to be the primary driver of the disproportionate number of Democrats identifying as LGBT.

In an Oct. 10, 2020 article, Politico reported that 38 percent of respondents in Generation Z identified as Liberals, while 18 percent identified as Conservatives, (https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/11/gen-z-politics-2020-poll-takeaways-426767). Similarly, a Nov. 6, 2019 article in Branded reported that 43 percent of Millennials identify as Democrats, while 26 percent characterize themselves as Republicans, (https://gobranded.com/political-party-affiliation-millennials-versus-baby-boomers/). Between the two youngest groups of voters, Generation Z and Millennials, the advantage held by the Democratic Party appears to be less than two to one; nowhere near the five to one differential in those identifying as LGBT in the cumulative 2020 Gallup data.

The disproportionately high number of LGBT individuals within the Democratic Party is likely attributable to the party’s Progressive agenda; one which is not loathe to toss traditional societal values aside in favor of new ones which it deems more equitable and inclusive. In the case at hand, the institution which must be dethroned in order to provide space for the elevation of the LGBT lifestyle is the nuclear family, consisting historically of a father, a mother, and one or more children. While the nuclear family has been the societal ideal for nearly all of the 3500 years of recorded history, it became necessary to knock the family off of its pedestal lest one might conclude that those choosing to live as gay men, lesbian women, bisexuals, or transgenders have chosen a life less virtuous in some way than that lived by heterosexual men and women.

For those who believe that the LGBT lifestyle is morally equivalent to the heterosexual lifestyle and its progeny, the traditional nuclear family, any increase in the number of Americans identifying as LGBT should be, and generally is, an issue of little or no concern. But for the remainder of the population, those who believe a traditional nuclear family that includes both a father and a mother in the rearing of children provides the most stable environment for the production of healthy, well-adjusted citizens, the number of Americans identifying as LGBT is a matter of great concern. So the question that remains, one which I believe it is imperative that we, as a society, give our serious consideration, is how did we get to this place. How is it that young Americans became less and less committed to the ideal of the traditional nuclear family, and more open to the truth claims of LGBT advocates? For the sake of the society, it is important that we find some answers to that question.

— Victor E. Thayer

Upland, CA