Nearly 25 percent of high school students claim to be on the LGBTQ spectrum, more than double the percentage who said the same in 2015.
Just 75.5 percent of 14 to 18-year-olds said that they are heterosexual, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s biannual youth report for 2021.
Of those surveyed, 12.1 percent said that they are bisexual, and 3.2 percent said that they are gay. Additionally, 3.9 percent chose “other” and 5.2 percent “questioned” their sexuality.
“The percentage of students who do not view themselves as straight has more than doubled in recent years — from 11 percent in 2015 to 24.5 percent in 2021,” the Daily Mail reported.
The report noted that rates of alternate sexualities in minors are much higher than in adults. Roughly 7 percent of adults identify as LGBTQ.
The CDC also found that minors who identify as LGBTQ have significantly more mental health issues.
“More than half of female high schoolers who identify as bisexual have seriously considered attempting suicide, and 40 percent whe identified as bisexual. This is compared to 20 percent of heterosexual female students,” the report stated. “A staggering 26 percent — more than one in four — bisexual female students attempted suicide.”
Among male minors, “bisexuals were 40 percent likely to consider suicide, with the rate being 35 percent among gay teens. One in ten heterosexual teens considered suicide. Five percent attempted suicide, compared to 20 percent of gay teens and 17 percent of bisexual males.”
These students are also more likely to be victims of sexual abuse. The CDC found that “students who identify as bisexual and students who have sexual contact with both sexes experience violence victimization at higher rates.”
Jay Richard, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the paper that the US sees much higher numbers of minors identifying as LGBTQ than other parts of the world. He believes that the boom is being caused, in part, by the rise of gender studies in schools. Another factor is the increased focus on social justice, making children want to seem less normal.
“There are social incentives to declaring yourself a sexual minority,” Richard said. ‘There is nothing you have to do to be bisexual. You [could] just wanna make yourself cooler.”
The CDC’s data comes from surveying 17,232 children in 152 schools across 45 states.
