According to a new report, Google searches for terms that question a person’s sexuality or gender identity have increased 1,300% in the last four years.
The Cultural Currents Institute published the findings last week. This market research firm studies public opinion trends and collected Google Trends data between January 2004 and this month on questions related to gender identity and sexual orientation across all 50 US states.
According to the report, Utah has been the state where the most searches for “Am i gay”, “Am i lesbian” and ‘Am i trans” have occurred since May last year.
The report cited Utah’s “traditionally Conservative Social Values” in its data as an important factor.
The reports stated that “this might indicate a significant questioning of identity by its internet users. This could be driven by a conflict between personal feelings, and societal expectations.” These tensions between web searches and public life are not uncommon in Utah. We recently published data showing that searches of ‘VPN,’ increased following the blocking of PornHub by the state.
Oklahoma, West Virginia, Mississippi and Louisiana were the states with the lowest LGBTQ equality in the a href=”https://www.hrc.org/resources/state-equality-index”>2022 State Equality Index/a> published by the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ group. Oklahoma, West Virginia and Mississippi were the four states with the lowest LGBTQ equality in the State Equality Index, published by Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest LGBTQ organization. Kentucky ranked second in the four categories that measure equality.
The report states that the historical search volume of the term “nonbinary”, while limited, is gaining in popularity. Vermont had the highest volume of searches for the term in the last year.
