LGBTQ+ officeholders nearly triple since 2017, report finds

• The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, which aims to promote LGBTQ+ representation in public service, first began tracking the number of queer and transgender elected officials in 2017.

By the numbers: This year's results show a 10% increase from last year's number of out elected officials and the highest population recorded since the institute began tracking LGBTQ+ political representation.

• Every year since 2017, LGBTQ+ officeholders have increased by a rate between 5.8% and 25%, per the report's findings.
• The study found that non-binary elected officials increased at a significantly higher rate than cisgender LGBTQ+ elected officials from 2023 to 2024 (69.6% and 9.2%, respectively), but trans elected officials decreased for the first time since 2017.
• Trans men and trans women serving in elected positions decreased by 6% from 50 in 2023 to 47 in 2024.

Yes, but: There's still a ways to go before the country achieves equitable representation.

• A March 2024 Gallup poll found that 7.6% of U.S. adults identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

• But just 0.25% of elected officials are LGBTQ+, the Out for America report found.
• "LGBTQ+ people are severely underrepresented at nearly every level of government and in nearly every public position in the United States," the report read.

The big picture: Party affiliation among LGBTQ+ elected officials is lopsided to the left, the study found, with 70.8% of LGBTQ+ officeholders identifying as Democrats and 2.7% serving as Republicans.

• A 2022 Human Rights Campaign report projected that by 2040, the LGBTQ+ voting bloc would grow from one in 10 voters at the time of the study to nearly one in four.

Go deeper: Exclusive: Anti-LGBTQ+ legislative agenda momentum slows in U.S.