Roughly 30% of Latin Mormons in the United States identify as LGBT

More than a quarter of Latinos in the United States affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, identify as belonging to the LGBTQ community, a proportion that is higher than that of LGBTQ Latinos in the general population. a study.

The survey, published by Religion News Services on Monday, was conducted by the Nationscape Data Set, a joint initiative of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Democracy Fund.

The study involved interviews with about 318,000 residents of the country, including about 3,800 members of the Mormon Church, to determine the demographic and generational characteristics of that religious group.

One of the “surprising” findings, said the survey’s authors (Chris Tozanovic and Lyn Favrick, UCLA political scientists) is that among Mormons, “ethnic minorities tend to be sexual minorities as well.”

Specifically, while 13% of all Hispanics in the United States declare themselves LGBTQ, this percentage among Hispanic Mormons is as high as 29%. The study explains that this statistical difference is “significant” because, given the number of people surveyed, “it is not an error due to random sampling.”

However, “It is not clear why Hispanic Mormons show greater sexual diversity than their non-Mormons counterparts,” the report notes, adding that a similar phenomenon has been detected among African Americans, with 26% of Mormons identifying as LGBTQ.

Additionally, regardless of race, the majority of gay Mormons live outside of Utah, the state in which the church is located and where the majority of the population is conservative.

According to the study authors, this situation was first discovered in 2016 and since then the number of non-heterosexual Mormons outside Utah has continued to grow, due to a “decision on their part” possibly based on the fact that “Utah is the most problematic place for women. Sexual minorities, At least outside of Salt Lake City.”

In terms of age, among Mormons called Generation Z (born after 1997), 23% identify as LGBTQ, compared to just 6% of those born between 1946 and 1965, or “boomers.”