Evolving Label Usage within Generation Z when Self-Describing Sexual Orientation
This research addresses the need for updated demographic surveys to reflect evolving LGBTQ label usage, though it is incremental as it applies existing corpus analysis methods to new data.
The study analyzed how 33,993 LGBTQ Generation Z individuals in the U.S. self-describe their sexual orientation, finding that while labels like bisexual and lesbian remain stable, others such as homosexual and demisexual evolve across age groups, revealing diversity within this demographic.
Evaluating change in ranked term importance in a growing corpus is a powerful tool for understanding changes in vocabulary usage. In this paper, we analyze a corpus of free-response answers where 33,993 LGBTQ Generation Z respondents from age 13 to 24 in the United States are asked to self-describe their sexual orientation. We observe that certain labels, such as bisexual, pansexual, and lesbian, remain equally important across age groups. The importance of other labels, such as homosexual, demisexual, and omnisexual, evolve across age groups. Although Generation Z is often stereotyped as homogenous, we observe noticeably different label usage when self-describing sexual orientation within it. We urge that interested parties must routinely survey the most important sexual orientation labels to their target audience and refresh their materials (such as demographic surveys) to reflect the constantly evolving LGBTQ community and create an inclusive environment.