More people than ever are coming out on Facebook
Research from Facebook shows that more and more people on the platform are opening up about the gender and sexuality.
The social network has been monitoring statistics relating to coming out – from expressing an ‘interested in’ of the same gender, or from specifying a custom gender identity.
It noted that “consistent with popular perceptions”, more and more people are choosing to be out and visible – with a steady growth in the rate of people coming out, compared to the average from the year before.
It also shows how the Supreme Court ruling bringing same-sex marriage to all 50 US states inspired users to open up – with the number surging to 250% of its average on the day.
Facebook said: “”Currently, more than 6 million Americans have come out on Facebook.
“Since we only consider those who have expressed a same-gender attraction or list a custom gender on their Facebook profiles, it is likely that this figure is an underestimate of the total number of ‘out’ Americans.”
It adds: “Over the past year, approximately 800,000 Americans updated their profile to express a same-gender attraction or custom gender.
“Further, not only has the total number of Americans who have come out on Facebook risen dramatically, but so has the number coming out each day.
“The number of people on Facebook coming out per day is on track to be three times what it was a year ago.”
However, there are still issues in less historically tolerant states – with less than two percent of people on Facebook being openly LGBT in Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.
This is less than half of the number in states including New York and Nevada – where over 4 percent of people are openly LGBT.
