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The percentage of U.S. adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) ranges from 1.7% in North Dakota to 5.1% in Hawaii and 10% in the District of Columbia, according to Gallup surveys conducted from June-December 2012. Residents in the District of Columbia were most likely to identify as LGBT (10%). Among states, the highest percentage was in Hawaii (5.1%) and the lowest in North Dakota (1.7%), but all states are within two percentage points of the nationwide average of 3.5%...Given that I'm a gay man who lives in Iowa and given that Iowa is one of roughly one-fifth of the United States that features marriage equality, I naturally wanted to see where Iowa ranks amongst its peers. It turns out that Iowa is the 40th gayest state. According to that Gallup Poll, 2.8% of Iowans responded yes when asked if they are LGBT and 93.4% responded with a no when asked if they are LGBT. For the record, neither I nor Husband Mark were called and asked if we identify as LGBT.
Measuring sexual orientation and gender identity can be challenging because these concepts involve complex social and cultural patterns. There are a number of ways to measure lesbian, gay, and bisexual orientation, and transgender status. Gallup chose a broad measure of personal identification as LGBT because this grouping of four statuses is commonly used in current American discourse, and as a result has important cultural and political significance. One limitation of this approach is that it is not possible to separately consider differences among lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, or transgender individuals. A second limitation is that this approach measures broad self-identity, and does not measure sexual or other behavior, either past or present.
Where does your state rank?