Mind the Gap: Why Gen Z is more likely to identify as LGBTQ+

CURATED READS FOR GEN Z—AND THEIR Z-CURIOUS COLLEAGUES

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Brought to you by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities

first up

An image linking to the web page “LGBTQ+ voices: Learning from lived experiences” on McKinsey.com.

Welcome back! This week, we’re talking about LGBTQ+ inclusion, Gen Z health in one chart, and how Zoomers travel.

The share of Americans identifying as LGBTQ+ has grown to reach 7.6 percent, up from 5.6 percent four years ago, according to Gallup. A closer look at the split between generations reveals an interesting trend: just over 22 percent of Gen Zers in the United States identify as LGBTQ+, higher than millennials (9.8 percent), Gen Xers (4.5 percent), and boomers (2.3 percent) combined. Gallup points out that “each younger generation is about twice as likely as the generation that preceded it to identify as LGBTQ+.”

These figures likely stem from greater social acceptance among young people and cultural acceptance on a broader level. (Remember, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in 2015, when millennials had already entered adulthood.) In a recent Wall Street Journal article on the cultural effects of legalized same-sex marriage, a septuagenarian notes, “Today, many younger people might not even know their elders once had to fight for same-sex marriage. . . . For kids 20 or younger, they’ve never known anything else.”

Even with growing LGBTQ+ visibility and higher identification rates among Gen Zers, McKinsey research shows that junior employees are less likely to be out at work compared with their senior colleagues. (While we’ve cited data on the share of Gen Zers identifying as LGBTQ+ in the United States, it’s important to note that employees outside of North America and Europe have a harder time coming out to their colleagues, according to the research.)

Young LGBTQ+ employees may feel vulnerable, underrepresented, or isolated in the workplace. A survey of more than 4,000 LGBTQ+ employees in the United States, helmed by McKinsey partner Raelyn Jacobson and coauthors, finds that several parts of the LGBTQ+ employee experience fall short of being truly inclusive:

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Two-thirds of surveyed gay and lesbian employees report being an “only” in the workplace.

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Bisexual and transgender employees are more likely than other surveyed employees to report experiencing microaggressions at work.

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LGBTQ+ employees are less likely than other surveyed employees to feel comfortable talking about mental health issues.

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To quantify inclusion in the workplace, we surveyed employees on how frequently they experience behaviors that make up inclusion, such as self-expression, impartial treatment, and mentorship. LGBTQ+ employees report experiencing inclusion less frequently across almost all the behaviors we measured compared with straight colleagues.