The demography of sexual identity development and disclosure among LGB people in Europe

BACKGROUND: Despite a non-negligible share of youth in Europe identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer, we know little about the demography behind the development and disclosure of one’s sexual identity, particularly regarding their timing and their variation by LGBTQIA identity. This limited understanding hinders the use of sexual orientation as a predictor in social sciences. OBJECTIVE: We provide descriptive evidence on the demography of sexual identity development and disclosure among LGB people in Europe. We focus on age at self-disclosure and age at first coming out to others and describe differences across European countries, birth cohorts, and between lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. METHODS: We use the 2019 EU LGBTI II Survey data administered by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and employ descriptive statistics, t-test, and survival analyses to investigate age at self-disclosure and first coming out. RESULTS: The age at self-disclosure has remained stable across successive cohorts of LGB people in Europe, whereas the age at coming out to others has decreased considerably. Accordingly, the gap between age at self-disclosure and age at coming out to others has reduced across cohorts. However, longer age gaps are consistently observed among LGB men across all cohorts and countries. Age at self-disclosure varies considerably across Europe, being highest in Central European countries and lowest in Eastern European countries. CONTRIBUTION: This contribution offers the first systematic description of the age at self-disclosure and coming out in Europe and how they vary according to LGB identity, cohort, and country.