Australia's rainbow population rising after 'burst of acceptance'
Australians are becoming more comfortable identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual, and experts are likening it to the sexual revolution of previous decades.
Researchers at Charles Darwin University estimated Australia's LGBTQI population doubled between 2012 and 2020, increasing from 3.3 per cent to 5.8 per cent of adults over 15.
The data came from the HILDA longitudinal survey of 17,000 Australians with responses from participants who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or another sexual identity.
The data was collected in 2012, 2016 and 2020.
During this time period there was a "burst of acceptance" of sexual minorities in Australia, particularly after the 2017 same-sex marriage vote, lead researcher Fiona Shalley told AAP.
"Being a minority sexual identity and engaging in that used to be criminal, but Australia has come a long way," she said.
"There was also stigma and discrimination associated with being a sexual minority so a lot of people did not disclose their identity until more recently."
If the young adults who participated in the study maintained their sexual minority identities throughout their life, Australia's LGBTQI population could grow by about three percent each year.
By the time the next data is updated from 2024, the population size could be about 1.7 million people, Ms Shalley said.
"If you think about the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s, it was in response to changes in behaviours and social attitudes," she said.
"This boom in population could also be in response to changing attitudes around sexual behaviours."
While Australia's LGBTQI demographic has been a hidden group with little national data capturing the population, researchers hope to change that.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2024 estimated 4.5 per cent - or about one in 20 - Australians aged 16 and over were LGBTI+, based on combined data from multiple household surveys.
A new category of sexual orientation and gender will be included in the 2026 census questions for the first time.
"We still don't know enough about (the LGBTQI demographic) 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+ is likely influenced by the number of visible positive role models, social media attention, and in our storytelling."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
Australia suspends Iran embassy as conflict escalates
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong. Australia said today it had suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran, citing "a deteriorating security environment" as Israel hit Iran's nuclear facilities again, and the week-old air war showed no sign yet of an exit strategy from either side. Israel launched a sweeping aerial campaign against Iran last Friday, calling it a preemptive strike to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran has denied any such plans and retaliated by launching counterstrikes on Israel. "The Australian government has directed the departure of all Australian officials and dependents ... based on advice about the deteriorating security environment in Iran," Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement. Consular staff are being deployed to neighbouring Azerbaijan, including its border crossings, to support Australians departing Iran, Wong said. "We remain in close contact with other partner countries. At this stage, our ability to provide consular services is extremely limited due to the situation on the ground. The airspace remains closed," she added. Australia's ambassador to Iran, Ian McConville, would remain in the region to support the government's response, Wong said. More than 1500 Australians and their families in Iran have sought assistance to leave the country, official data showed.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Australia's rainbow population rising after 'burst of acceptance'
Australians are becoming more comfortable identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual, and experts are likening it to the sexual revolution of previous decades. Researchers at Charles Darwin University estimated Australia's LGBTQI population doubled between 2012 and 2020, increasing from 3.3 per cent to 5.8 per cent of adults over 15. The data came from the HILDA longitudinal survey of 17,000 Australians with responses from participants who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or another sexual identity. The data was collected in 2012, 2016 and 2020. During this time period there was a "burst of acceptance" of sexual minorities in Australia, particularly after the 2017 same-sex marriage vote, lead researcher Fiona Shalley told AAP. "Being a minority sexual identity and engaging in that used to be criminal, but Australia has come a long way," she said. "There was also stigma and discrimination associated with being a sexual minority so a lot of people did not disclose their identity until more recently." If the young adults who participated in the study maintained their sexual minority identities throughout their life, Australia's LGBTQI population could grow by about three percent each year. By the time the next data is updated from 2024, the population size could be about 1.7 million people, Ms Shalley said. "If you think about the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s, it was in response to changes in behaviours and social attitudes," she said. "This boom in population could also be in response to changing attitudes around sexual behaviours." While Australia's LGBTQI demographic has been a hidden group with little national data capturing the population, researchers hope to change that. The Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2024 estimated 4.5 per cent - or about one in 20 - Australians aged 16 and over were LGBTI+, based on combined data from multiple household surveys. A new category of sexual orientation and gender will be included in the 2026 census questions for the first time. "We still don't know enough about (the LGBTQI demographic) 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+ is likely influenced by the number of visible positive role models, social media attention, and in our storytelling."
Otago Daily Times
5 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Proposed law change protects questionable pub jokes
Telling a questionable joke at a pub will not land people before an anti-discrimination complaints hearing under an Australian territory's proposed new laws. Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby has defended the Northern Territory government's planned anti-discrimination laws to be introduced to parliament in July. At an estimates hearing on Monday, she rejected accusations from shadow attorney-general Chansey Paech that the planned laws "watered down" protections for people offended by comments made about them. Ms Boothby said her government was restoring "fairness and common sense" to laws that went too far when the previous Labor government revised them in 2022. The proposed laws remove "vague" terms such as "offend" and "insult". They will be replaced with clearer terms to prohibit conduct that "incites hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule" based on personal attributes such as race, sexuality, gender identity, religion and more. "It's still a strong measure of anti-vilification, so we don't put up with that kind of behaviour," Ms Boothby said. "Any kind of hate speech is not acceptable in our community." The attorney-general said the new laws also restored protections for religious schools, allowing them to hire staff who upheld their faith while protecting against discrimination based on race, sexuality or gender. Territorians wanted their freedom to enjoy the territory lifestyle, she said. "It's not just having a joke at the pub that's going to land you in front of a hearing," Ms Boothby said. "We want something that's more serious than that. "We still want to be able to tell a joke. We still want to have freedom of speech debates." It was a case of restoring balance and ensuring the law did not overreach into everyday conversations, religious freedoms, or basic rights to express an opinion, Ms Boothby said. The government consulted religious and multicultural groups, sex workers, LGBTQI groups, the anti-discrimination commissioner and others on the new laws. The proposed legislation was in line with changes made in other Australian jurisdictions, the attorney-general said. The estimates hearing was told the office of the NT Anti-Discrimination Commissioner had a budget cut for 2025/26 of $269,000 to $1.65 million. Commissioner Jeswynn Yogaratnam told the hearing his office received up to 300 complaints a year but only had two complaints officers amid a large backlog of cases. He said only three of 46 vilification complaints this financial year had been accepted in relation to race, religious belief, gender identity and disability. Complaints were assessed as to whether they were trivial, vexatious or had no grounds, while those that proceeded were subject to a high-threshold objective standard of assessment, Mr Yogaratnam said. "So things like your jokes at the pub would not amount to vilification in the context of the way in which we assess it. "Clearly if that joke is one that incites hatred in relation to one of the 24 protected attributes like race, gender identity, disability, then that would be something we would need to consider." Any other version of the NT's vilification provision "would be watering it down" because it was the strongest vilification law in Australia, he said.
