According to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday, nearly 25% of high school students in the U.S. don’t identify as heterosexual. The CDC’s 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) survey revealed that the percentage of non-heterosexual students has risen by almost 13% since 2015.
The survey, conducted every two years, asked 17,508 students in 152 schools nationwide about their sexual identity. Of the respondents, 75.5% identified as heterosexual, and the remaining 24.5% identified as bisexual, questioning, other, or gay/lesbian.
However, it is important to note that the recent increase in non-heterosexual students may be due to changes in the survey’s questioning on sexual identity. The YRBSS added two new options for students to describe their sexual identities: “I am not sure about my sexual identity (questioning)” and “I describe my sexual identity in some other way.”
These findings align with a report from The Trevor Project released earlier this year, which found that LGBTQ+ youth are increasingly identifying outside the gender binary. The report showed that almost 26% of 35,000 LGBTQ+ youth ages 13 to 24 identified as nonbinary, with an additional 20% reporting they were still questioning their possible nonbinary identity.
The CDC report’s results also echoed a Gallup poll from earlier this year that found that 20% of adults under the age of 25 identify as LGBTQ+ in some way, with most respondents identifying as bisexual. Additionally, a June 2022 Pew Research Center report found that over 5% of adults under the age of 30 identified as either transgender or nonbinary.
The USA Today reported in June 2022 that more people from Generation Z identify as LGBTQ+ than people from any previous generation, citing increased social acceptance and visibility of LGBTQ+ people thanks to the civil rights activism of previous generations.
As these numbers continue to grow, it is crucial to ensure that LGBTQ+ students feel seen and supported in their schools and communities.