Gallup: LGBTQ+ adults coming out younger as society becomes more accepting

July 26 (UPI) -- Young LGBTQ+ people are coming out nearly a decade earlier than their elder counterparts, coinciding with greater societal acceptance, according to a recent Gallup poll.

The new findings released Friday came from an online survey of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender people and those who identify as something other than non-heterosexual or cisgender conducted from May 1-15.

Most respondents said they came out before they turned 30, with 57% saying they did so by age 22. Ten percent said they came out later in life, and 18% reported they have never come out to anyone.

Respondents aged 18 to 29 said they came out at a median age of 17, while those aged 30 to 49 and 50 to 65 said they came out in their early 20s. The oldest group, 65-plus, reported a median coming-out age in their late 20s.

The report also found LGBTQ+ women are more than twice as likely as men to come out by age 14.

While most participants said they believe societal treatment of LGBTQ+ people has improved in the past 10 years, younger respondents were more likely to report positive changes than older groups.

Additionally, about one in four respondents said they were the victims of poor treatment or harassment in the past year.

Forty-five percent of LGBTQ+ adults said they received no ill treatment in the past year.

Bisexual adults were less likely to experience harassment, with 20% saying "yes" versus 36% of gay or lesbian adults.

Significantly more bisexual people (23%) than gay or lesbian people (5%) also said they have never came out to anybody.

Gallup did not report transgender responses, citing sample size limitations.

The Gallup poll coincides with another recent report from the Human Rights Campaign that noted federal LGBTQ+ protections increased greatly under President Joe Biden than under President Donald Trump .

Federal agencies under Trump lifted many regulations protecting LGBTQ+ people from discrimination and stopped accepting civil rights complaints based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Biden during his time in office reinstated those rules per the Supreme Court 's decision that LGBTQ+ people are protected from discrimination under the same rules that prohibit discrimination based on sex.

Michigan on Wednesday also banned the "gay panic" or "trans panic" legal defenses, which have been used by defendants charged with killing a gay or trans person to argue they had reacted spontaneously and violently to unwanted sexual advances.

"Since I took office, we expanded the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to cover the LGBTQ+ community, established the Michigan LGBTQ+ Advisory Council, and banned conversion therapy for minors," Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. "Our work is not done as we continue to make progress and move Michigan forward."