Google search is the primary destination for finding the majority of information.
According to a report by the Cultural Currents Institute, searches related to sexuality and gender identity on Google have increased by 1300% since 2004 in the US.
Internet access has become increasingly affordable over time – more and more people use it to accomplish a wide variety of tasks. But apart from work, people also use popular search engines like Google to put their inquiring minds to work – from searching for famous foods around the world to taboo topics like sexuality.
Now, according to a report by the Cultural Currents Institute, a market research company, since 2004, there has been a 1300% increase in user searches questioning their own sexuality and gender and searching for phrases are: ‘Am I gay,’ ‘Am I gay,’ ‘Am I trans,’ ‘How to come out,’ and ‘Nonbinary. The data is as per Google Trends from 2004 to 2023, the firm noted.
In total, five search terms were considered—’I’m gay,’ ‘am I gay,’ ‘am I trans,’ ‘how to come out,’ and ‘nonbinary.’ And on the basis of these, there has been an upward trend in America.
According to the report, Utah—a US state with “traditionally conservative social values”—topped three of the five categories.
On the other hand, Oklahoma topped the ‘Home to Come Out’ category, which states that the US state has a “challenging environment for identity self-disclosure”.
The Cultural Current Institute notes that “Google Trends data for all 50 US states for the search terms ‘am gay,’ ‘am lesbian,’ ‘am trans,’ ‘how to come out,’ and ‘nonbinary’ Was collected. DC January 2004 to May 2023.”
