The survey has been created by Match.com and Justin Garcia, a Ruth Halls assistant professor of gender studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and research scientist at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University.
The study is an extension of Match.com’s annual survey of single people in America. It will focus on single LGBT people and explore topics including: ‘coming out’, marriage, dating and labels.
“Today’s society is full of rich gender and sexual diversity, yet relatively little is known about the dating experiences of LGBTQ people,” said Garcia, who serves as scientific advisor to Match. “By expanding our annual Singles in America study to include more people of diverse identities, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans, we are beginning to address these knowledge gaps to better understand singles today.”
Over 1000 LGBT singles aged 18-70, living in the US were surveyed. Some outcomes of the survey include:
On realising sexual orientation
- ¼ of gay men realised they were gay before age 10, half before the age of 13 and ¾ by the age of 18
- ¼ of lesbian women realised by the age of 12, 50% by age 15 and 75% by age 20 or 21
On gender identity
- Half of transgender men and women realised their gender and body did not match by age 13
- 75% of transgender men realised by age 16 and 75% of transgender women by age 20
On revealing sexuality and/or gender to others
- ¼ came out in the same year that they ‘realised’ their gender identity or sexuality
- Those who ‘realised’ before their 18th birthday waited an average of 7 years before telling someone, while those who realised in adulthood took an average of 2.9 years
On the importance of marriage equality and expanding their families
- Just over 50% said they wanted to get married, whilst 25% said they would never consider getting married
- 48% of LGBT people said they wanted children: 52% of lesbians and 36% of gay men
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