June is LGBT pride month and multiple cities—including Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle—will hold annual events this weekend. But at a time when society is becoming more accepting of homosexuality, how important is it for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people today to show their support at these public events (which began as […]

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population is one of the most Democratic demographic groups in the country. According to the 2012 national exit polls conducted by the National Election Pool, gay, lesbian, and bisexual adults voted for Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by more than three-to-one (76% vs. 22%). This Democratic advantage can be […]

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults are generally less religious than U.S. society as a whole, a recent Pew Research Center survey found. About half (51%) declare any religious affiliation at all, versus close to eight-in-ten U.S. adults; about a fifth (17%) are both religiously affiliated and say religion is very important in their lives, […]

Lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender adults are, on the whole, less religious than the general public. About half (48%) say they have no religious affiliation, compared with 20% in the general public; this pattern holds among all age groups. LGBT adults who do have a religious affiliation generally attend worship services less frequently and […]

The Supreme Court is expected to rule imminently on two laws seeking to block same-sex marriage -- the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8. Here's a summary of major findings related to the issue.

This section examines the demographic profile of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center and other prominent research organizations. It also discusses the challenges involved in collecting data on the size and characteristics of a population that can be defined several different ways and whose members may be reluctant to […]

Why did Pew Research decide to conduct an LGBT-specific survey? We know from our surveys of the general public that there’s been a sharp increase in support for same-sex marriage and in societal acceptance of homosexuality over the past decade. Of course, we’re on the cusp of an important historical and cultural moment with the […]

Support for the legal right to marry and adopt children is nearly universal within the LGBT population. Still, LGBT adults are less likely than the general public to want to marry or have children. These differences may be related to the fact that marriage—and to some degree, parenting—have been legally off-limits to most LGBT adults. […]

Overview The rise in support for same-sex marriage over the past decade is among the largest changes in opinion on any policy issue over this time period. A new national survey finds that much of the shift is attributable to the arrival of a large cohort of young adults – the Millennial generation – who […]

India’s 2011 national census, which goes into the field this week, includes not just the usual two gender categories, but for the first time a third one, called “other.”