Teens less likely to identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, prompting debate over why: report

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, October 15, 2026

New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that fewer younger teenagers are identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual, with the steepest decline occurring among ninth-grade girls, prompting debate over what may be driving the change.

According to an analysis of the CDC’s 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data by Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, 17% of ninth-grade girls identified as lesbian or bisexual in 2025, down from 30% in 2021. Over the same period, the share identifying specifically as bisexual fell from 26% to 13%.

Researchers and conservative commentators have offered differing explanations. Some point to cultural influences, while others caution that the available data does not explain the decline.

“‘Why?’ is exactly the question,” Glenn T. Stanton, director of Global Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family, told The Christian Post.

Stanton pointed to Twenge’s acknowledgment in her analysis that she did not know what was causing the change. “That is refreshing from an academic,” he said.

Stanton suggests that social influences and changing cultural attitudes toward gender and sexuality could help explain the trend. He said that the earlier rise in LGBT identification among young people may have been influenced by social contagion and described it as a cultural fad that could be fading.

“I think another related reason young teens might not be identifying with LGB is because those are fundamentally binary ‘old school’ identities and it’s now all about the 126 different genders there supposedly are, so the youngest among us know the cool thing is to identify with the Q, which of course, is not a thing,” Stanton said.

“Made-up human identities don’t tend to stick, because they are made up. And gender ideology is the pursuit of making up new sexual and gender identities,” he added.

Twenge’s analysis found that the decline was less pronounced among older teens. Among 12th-graders, LGB identification fell from 18% in 2023 to 16% in 2025. Among ninth-graders, it fell from 17% to 11% over the same period. Among sexually active students, ninth-grade girls also appeared to show the largest decline in reporting at least one same-sex partner.

Twenge suggested the culture may be undergoing a generational shift but acknowledged she is not entirely certain.

Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, attributed the trend to the Trump administration’s funding cuts, writing in a post on X: “Amazing what happens when you cut the Department of Education and USAID.”

Twenge noted, however, that the declines began during the Biden administration. She also questioned why, if politics were the main cause, political changes would affect ninth-graders more than older high school students.

“It maybe has something to do with it, but it’s clearly not the only thing going on. It’s a mystery,” Twenge said in a statement shared by The Washington Post.

Twenge said she plans to examine several possible explanations, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, politics and social media. The CDC survey does not establish what caused the changes in reported identity.

A 2025 analysis published by the Manhattan Institute and written by Eric Kaufmann, a Canadian professor and conservative writer, suggested that transgender and queer identification among Generation Z has been declining since 2023.

The report, “The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans,” analyzed data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s annual survey of U.S. undergraduates, which included more than 60,000 students in 2025.

According to Kaufmann’s analysis, 3.6% of respondents identified as a gender other than male or female in 2025, down from 5.2% in 2024 and 6.8% in both 2022 and 2023.