Number of Australians coming out as LGBTI on Facebook each day doubles in a year

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

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.