All eyes have been on Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Nebraska, and Montana as they pass inhumane anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. One might assume that these states have the most closeted queer people in fear of persecution. However, according to the Cultural Currents Institute (CCI), there is one state that stands out as the most closeted state in the country: Utah.
The CCI studied Google trends from 2004 to 2023 to see which state had the most people questioning their sexuality and gender identity. The CCI chose search terms ‘am I gay’, ‘am I lesbian’, ‘am I trans’, ‘how to come out’ and ‘non-binary’, and overall, the CCI saw a rise in these search terms of over 1300%. In particular, Utah came out as the number one state to search these keywords in 3 of the 5 categories. Utah is a Republican-run state with the largest Mormon population in the country, making it an incredibly conservative area.
According to the CCI, search data may indicate “a significant underlying questioning of identity among its internet users, possibly driven by the conflict between personal feelings and societal expectations”.
To shed light on which states are the most closeted, here are the top 5 states for each search term category:
Top five states for the search term ‘am I gay’:
- Utah
- Iowa
- Indiana
- West Virginia
- New Hampshire
Top five states for the search term ‘am I lesbian’:
- Utah
- Connecticut
- Kentucky
- Washington
- Colorado
Top five states for the search term ‘am I trans’:
- Utah
- Kentucky
- Colorado
- Michigan
- Washington
Top five states for the search term ‘non-binary’:
- Vermont
- Oregon
- Maine
- Montana
- Washington
Note: The data suggests that the term ‘non-binary’ is most searched for in states that are more politically and socially progressive.
Top five states for the search term ‘how to come out’:
- Oklahoma
- West Virginia
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
- Kentucky
High levels of searches for ‘how to come out’ perhaps indicate a “more challenging environment for self-disclosure of identity”, the CCI notes.
The CCI states that the data represents “each term’s share of all Google searches for the region or time period being examined” and should be treated as relative.
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