Ever since the rise of the gay rights movement in the early 2000s, there have been contentious debates galore between opposing political sides in Congress and the courtroom as to whether or not gay Americans were “born that way” or whether their feelings occurred mostly as a result of societal pressure and influence.
While studies (and medical reviews) on that topic are decidedly mixed, a new report from The Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI) that analyzed trends in LGBT identity versus sexual behavior found that “social trends” were a significant factor in the skyrocketing rise of transgender and non-binary identification of young people over the last ten years.
Eric Kaufman, a politics professor at Birkbeck, University of London, explained his findings in a detailed Twitter thread and in the accompanying report, which also acknowledged that the increase in overall LGBT identification among certain groups has happened in part due to “Rising same-sex behavior [and an] erosion of the inhibition to identify as LGBT among same-sex attracted people.”
Kaufman’s conclusions were based on General Social Survey (GSS) data that he says “shows that LGBT identification has been diverging from same-sex behavior [Emphasis mine]. LGBT identity has risen 11 points among Americans under 30 since 2008, but same-sex behavior has only risen 4 points.” From the report:
When we look at homosexual behavior, we find that it has grown much less rapidly than LGBT identification. Men and women under 30 who reported a sexual partner in the last five years dropped from around 96% exclusively heterosexual in the 1990s to 92% exclusively heterosexual in 2021. Whereas in 2008 attitudes and behavior were similar, by 2021 LGBT identification was running at twice the rate of LGBT sexual behavior.
Further, he said his analysis showed that the “LGBT surge is socio-political, heavily siloed among very liberal young people. The GSS shows that the heterosexual share dropped about 20 points, to 66%, within the most liberal fifth of young people. It changed far less among others.”
Kaufman didn’t put the blame on public schools or institutions of higher learning specifically for the LGBT identification versus sexual behavior numbers disparity. Rather, he suggested it was a result of a confluence of factors, including how easily certain groups are persuaded to think a certain way in some cases in order to fit in:
I hypothesize that a more sexually liberal and modernist culture, one which values difference, best accounts for the new trend. This culture has its greatest impact on the most sexually fluid and perhaps easily influenced groups: the young, the very liberal, and women.
LGBT activists are, of course, trying to pick apart Kaufman’s findings, but I found his case to be solid. Check out the Twitter thread he wrote about it, which also included a look at the mental health crisis as it relates to the LGBT community, and decide for yourself:
Click here for the PDF version of the CSPI report.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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