The first time I kissed a woman in public, a stranger tried to hit me. But gen Zers are enjoying the hard-won freedom to be themselves – and it’s beautiful
OK, spill: who has been adding gay pills to the water supply? Someone must have been, because the number of LGBTQ-identifying adults in the US has jumped dramatically. According to a recent Gallup poll, the numbers have gone from 3.5% in 2012 to 7.1% in 2021. Gen Z, defined by Gallup as people born between 1997 and 2003, is leading the charge: 20.8% of them identified as LGBTQ+ in 2021, up from 10.5% in 2017.
People take things very seriously these days, so I should probably state for the record that I am obviously joking about the whole gay pills in the water thing. As a card-carrying member of the International Society for the Advancement of Homosexual Lifestyles (ISAHL), I can assure you that the Gay Agenda explicitly prohibits the use of bioweapons. No, we focus solely on mind control techniques. A little bit of brainwashing, subliminal messaging during the ad breaks, that sort of thing.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
