LGBTQ Attitudes & Experiences

Americans are divided over whether businesses that provide wedding services should be required to cater to same-sex couples even if their owners have religious objections to homosexuality.

Most Christians in America say that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by their sex at birth. Yet, many religious "nones" have different views.

The U.S. has more foreign students enrolled in its colleges and universities than any other country in the world. Explore data about foreign students in the U.S. higher education system.

While eight-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth, most Democrats and Democratic leaners (64%) take the opposite view and say a person’s gender can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Gaps between Republicans and Democrats over racial discrimination, immigration and poverty assistance have widened considerably in recent years.

A fact sheet provides an overview of the situation in the nations where same-sex marriage is legal nationwide as well as countries that allow it in certain jurisdictions.

In Pew Research Center polling in 2001, Americans opposed same-sex marriage by a margin of 57% to 35%. Since then, support for same-sex marriage has steadily grown. Based on polling in 2016, a majority of Americans (55%) support same-sex marriage, compared with 37% who oppose it. See the latest data on same-sex marriage.

Americans’ views toward those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) have changed substantially in recent years.

At this year’s annual meeting of the Population Association of America, the nation’s largest demography conference, researchers explored some long-studied topics from new perspectives.

Pew Research Center President Michael Dimock examines the changes – some profound, some subtle – that the U.S. experienced during Barack Obama’s presidency.