According to new research from The Cultural Currents Institute, Google searches related to personal sexual orientation and gender identity have skyrocketed since 2004. Questions like “am I gay?” or “am I lesbian?” have increased by 1,300 percent over the last two decades. Other phrases such as “am I trans” and “how to come out,” as well as searches for terms like “nonbinary” also follow an upward trend in the same time frame. The state of Utah leads with more people Googling “am I gay?”, “am I lesbian?” and “am I trans?” than any other state. Iowa, Indiana, West Virginia, and New Hampshire followed Utah in searches for “am I gay,” while Connecticut, Kentucky, Washington, and Colorado followed it for searches for “am I lesbian.” The Cultural Currents Institute also pointed out a “poignant” search term, with “how to come out” being Googled the most in traditionally conservative areas, including Mississippi and Kentucky, which it noted could indicate a more challenging environment for self-disclosure of identity. The Google study follows several other reports and studies that have been released in the last few years which have all found that younger generations are far more likely to come out as LGBTQ+ than ever before.
