A boom in the number of Australians identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual could be indicative of a “sexual revolution” not seen since the 60s and 70s, according to new research.
Study lead author Fiona Shalley, from Charles Darwin University (CDU), said the research showed the LGB+ population of Australia doubled between 2012 and 2020, increasing from 3.3 percent of adults over the age of 15 to 5.8 percent.
Ms Shalley said the CDU-lead team looked at responses from participants who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or another sexual identity in the HILDA longitudinal survey of 17,000 Australians to estimate the size and growth of the LGB+ population at three time points – 2012, 2016, 2020.
She said the “burst of acceptance” of the sexual minority population in Australia across this time period – particularly following the same-sex marriage vote in 2017 – could be a mirror to the shift in social attitudes and behaviours about sex that happened 50 years ago.
“Australia’s LGB+ demographic is a relatively hidden population group,” she said.
“We still don’t enough about them to understand how the population will grow in the future, but we are certainly noticing them now.”
Ms Shalley said the growing confidence of people identifying as LGB+ was likely influenced by the number of visible positive role models, social media attention, and in storytelling.
“If you think about the 60s and the 70s and the big revolution of sexual freedom then, maybe it’s happening again.”
Ms Shalley said how people chose to describe their sexual identity also changed over time, with new labels becoming much more common – particularly for young people – and this had the potential to shape how Australians defined their identities and relationships in the future.
She said it was difficult to project future population trends due to reliance on using historic patterns to inform those predictions, but one group in particular posed a unique challenge.
“This research identified that the biggest driver of the growth in the Australian LGB+ demographic over the eight-year time frame was young women who identified as bisexual.
“There is lots of evidence that women’s patterns of attraction and behaviour are more likely to change over time than men’s, so we cannot be certain they will continue to choose the same sexual identity in the future, or even remain part of the sexual minority population as it is now described.”
