Fewer Teens Now Identify as LGB, With Ninth-Grade Girls Driving the Decline

Being a teenager is one of the most awkward times in your life. You are figuring out who you are, what you believe, and what your place in the world really is. But in the middle of all of that, some teens are coming to grips with their sexuality. However, a new study shows that the number of teens who do have to come to terms with the fact that they might be a bit different from their peers is changing, and it's encouraging.

Identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) has plummeted among younger teens in 2025 in the nationally representative YRBS survey from the CDC. Older teens show relative stability, consistent with data from young adults. pic.twitter.com/ONMSfFhz4e

— Jean Twenge (author of 10 RULES, GENERATIONS) (@jean_twenge) September 28, 2026

There are some new findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fewer American teenagers are identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB). The most interesting part of this is the fact that much of this new data is being driven by young women. The CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey of American ninth through 12th graders from 2025 showed a decline in teens identifying as LGB across each of those grades compared with the prior two years. San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge broke down some of the points of the survey.

High school seniors aged 17 to 18 had the highest numbers of LGB identification in all four grades at 16 percent, two percentage points below the number of seniors surveyed in 2023. In fact, each grade level had a lower percentage of those identifying as LGB in 2025 than in 2023. The numbers among 9th graders aged 14 to 15 had the lowest number of LGB identifications and the highest drop. In 2023, 17 percent of those 9th graders identified as LGB; in 2025, it was down to 11 percent.

https://t.co/DYFdIfRuSU

Rather big. As many of us said all along, much--not all, but much--of the homosexual/transoid movement was based on social acceptability and kiddos trying to do what gets them accepted. Once we stop pushing that as a society, guess what? Fewer of them.

— @LarryWildWorldofHistory (@LarryWild2028) September 29, 2026

In 2023, 27 percent of females surveyed and 9 percent of males identified as being LGB. But by 2025, those numbers had fallen to 22 percent of females and 7 percent of males. But the numbers that are most curious: between 2015 and 2021, the share of high school-age girls identifying as LGB increased 128 percent, and between 2015 and 2023, the share of high school-age boys increased by 99 percent. Professor Twenge said of the data, “That really does look like a free fall. The decline appears to be driven almost entirely by girls.”

The name of the game for young people, more specifically teens, is a rabid desire to fit in. It's impossible to ignore the fact that the study largely covers the years of the Biden administration, thought to be the most pro-LGBTQ administration in the nation's history. Combine that with a media that makes being gay somehow trendy and cool, and popular brands like Bud Light and Target that catered to the LGBT community, and you have a perfect recipe for kids who may genuinely be confused, but who also are told that being gay is "edgy" and "cool" at the same time. Not to mention the tick-off-your-parents factor.

Professor Twenge cautioned that the data cannot establish whether the decline will continue or explain why fewer ninth-grade girls are identifying as LGB. Social influence may be one possible explanation, but the survey itself cannot prove it. 

Wow! Bombshell from the CDC!
The number of 9th straight girls falsely claiming to be gay or bi has plummeted from its peak of 26% in 2021 to just 13% in 2025. Interestingly, the number of 9th grade girls who are (more or less) legitimately gay/bi has remained relatively stable. pic.twitter.com/QAgmAxeQUQ

— GK Chesterton Tweets (@GilbertCTweets) September 29, 2026

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