San Diego State University social psychologist Jean Twenge has been tracking how trans ideology is losing its incredible fast-rising grip on teens, reported here and here. She added to her research conclusions recently, looking specifically at sexual identity and behavior and American highschoolers. Her findings are certainly worth digging into.
She explains, in her headline, “Younger teens are now much less likely to say they are lesbian, gay, or bisexual,” and this is also thankfully reflected in much of their sexual behavior.
Drawing her new conclusions from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s 2025 Youth Risk Survey, Twenge says the changes in youth sexual orientation identity “are striking.” Declines are happening most starkly among younger teens, and especially among girls.
She observes “it really does look like a free fall” for high schoolers, especially 9th grade students. Her chart demonstrates the remarkable shift downward.
These lines denote the numbers of U.S. high school students “identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual” by grade from 2015-2025. Identifying as any of these dropped from 27% in 2023 to 22% in 2025 among girls. For boys, the decline was from 9% to 7%. She explains the previous increases from 2015 through 2020 were most notably among girls. “The previous increase in identifying as LGB was also larger among girls, with a 128% increase (more than doubling) from 2015 to 2021 among girls and a 99% increase (doubling) from 2015 to 2023 among boys.”
Specifically, the decline among 9th grade girls “dropped from 30% in 2021 to 17% in 2025, nearly cutting the numbers in half.” Declines among 12th grade girls have been much smaller, “from 26% in 2021 to 28% in 2023 and 25% in 2025.”
The most dramatic shift is among those who identified at bisexual, which is easily the largest “LGBT” category. This majority is most pronounced among younger populations and women, indicating more experimentation than anything else. But of this recent change, Twenge explains, “While 26% of 9th grade girls identified as bisexual in 2021, only 13% – half as many – did in 2025.”
That is a truly stunning development, indicating something is at work in the water of social culture. Data strongly supports the social contagion of gender identity shifts, but not as much attention has yet been given to the social contagion driving sexual behavior identity. The CDC data Twenge is now presenting certainly points in that direction.
The CDC Youth Risk Behavior data also tracks self-reports of actual relational behavior. Twenge explains “most high school students are not sexually active” and teen sexual behavior has been declining over the past decades.
But the few American teens who are sexually involved in same-sex behavior is a curious story. It is clearly declining among high school girls, but still growing among young boys as shown here.
Twenge observes, the data clearly “suggest that high school girls, especially younger girls, are no longer as likely to have same-sex partners.”
Professor Twenge also observes that this trend of overall LGBT decline is not being reflected in the data for young adults, ages 18 to 24. She explains that “it appears non-heterosexual identification is not declining (at least not anymore).” Instead, “It has stabilized and is no longer racing upward as it did between 2014 and 2022, when identifying as LGB nearly tripled among U.S. 18- to 24-year-olds.” She adds, “Among 25- to 34-year-olds, identifying as LGB also stabilized after more than doubling from 2014 to 2023.”
So, we are not seeing same-sex sexuality declines among young twenty- and thirty-somethings, but we are seeing a leveling off in the increases that have presented themselves in the past 20 years. Professor Twenge admits this is a curious development, “a generational or cohort effect, with different trends over the years for different age groups.”
She then asks, “What happened during this time that impacted 9th grade girls the most, especially their LGB identification and behavior?”
She humbly and refreshingly admits, “I have to confess: I have no idea.”
Human behavior in the midst of changing social and ideological dynamics is truly interesting. Culture drives so much of this, and it certainly is good news that culturally speaking, the wind appears to be going out of the sails of the sexual and gender revolution. It is now showing itself in the lives of our young people.
Stay tuned folks, the Daily Citizen will keep you updated.
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