Facebook reports Irish same-sex marriage referendum and US supreme court decision has driven increase in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex users

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The number of Australians coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer on Facebook daily has doubled since the start of 2015, the social media network has announced.

Facebook measured the number of LGBTIQ Australians by monitoring which of its 14 million Australian users changed the “interested in” field to reflect a same-gender interest, an interest in both genders, entering into a same-sex relationship, or used a custom gender on their profile.

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In the last 12 months the number of Australians coming out as LGBTI each day doubled, with big spikes around Sydney’s March 2015 Mardi Gras festival, the Irish referendum in favour of same-sex marriage in May, and US supreme court decision legalising same-sex marriage in June.

The analysis did not reveal what the daily number of Australians coming out or total number of LGBTIQ Australians were, but Facebook said “the total number of Australians who have come out on Facebook has risen substantially”.

In 2015, the topic of marriage equality was the sixth most talked about topic globally, but lower down at the 11th most talked about topic in Australia.

The number of Australians who “liked” Australian LGBTIQ pages grew over 20% in 2015. These sites were Equal Marriage Rights Australia, Australian Marriage Equality, DIY Rainbow, Acon, Ending HIV, SameSame, OX Live, SX News, Gay News Network and Gay Life.

“Across the country, we observed large increases in fan growth of Australian LGBTIQ Facebook pages, which demonstrates an interest to hear from and engage with the issues that matter to the LGBTIQ community,” Facebook said.

“In every capital city, the fan growth has either doubled or nearly doubled in terms of the number of fans of Australian LGBTIQ pages.”

Again, the largest increases were recorded around the Irish referendum and supreme court decision.

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Individuals from more than 200 countries have supported a prominent Australian LGBTI page, with more than one-quarter of all supporters of these pages living overseas. The 10 countries with the most fans of Australian LGBTIQ pages were the US, the UK, Thailand, Canada, New Zealand, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan.

Facebook said “we are thrilled that people around the world are using the platform to express their support for the Australian LGBTIQ community”.