The share of young Americans identifying as LGBTQ has declined sharply, according to recent surveys that complicate years of earlier growth in nontraditional gender and sexual identities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Survey recorded a drop in LGB identification among ninth through 12th graders, driven largely by a collapse in female high school students identifying as bisexual. Among female high school freshmen, bisexual identification fell from 26 percent in 2021 to 13 percent in 2025—a 13 percentage point drop in four years.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression found similar patterns among college students. Identification as something other than male or female dropped from 6.8 percent in 2022 and 2023 to 5.2 percent in 2024, then to 3.6 percent in 2025.
Brown University reported a particularly steep decline in nonbinary identification. In 2023, 38 percent of Brown students identified as LGBT, with 9.2 percent claiming nonbinary identity. By 2025, the nonbinary figure had fallen to 2.6 percent.
The reversal comes after years of increases that began around 2020, when the progressive movement's cultural influence expanded alongside social media platforms like TikTok. Researcher Erik Kaufmann and scholar Jean Twenge have suggested social contagion played a role in the earlier surge.
LGBT activists expressed surprise at the declines. They had previously argued that the increases reflected a natural awakening of existing identities rather than social influence.
Commentator Tiana Lowe Doescher noted that politicians had reacted sharply to transgender messaging in campaign advertisements, suggesting the data may reflect broader cultural and political shifts in how young people report their identities.
