Comparing to this Gallup poll of adult Gen Zers (18-25 year olds):
High schoolers: 26% LGBTQ; 12% bisexual, 11% questioning/other, 3% gay/lesbian
Gen Z adults: 21% LGBTQ; 15% bisexual, 3% questioning/other, 4.5% gay/lesbian
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They also found that, among all high schoolers that have had a sexual experience, 1 in 5 have had a same-sex experience (20%; 14% with both genders, 6% only with the same gender). Assuming that number will probably go up for them as they have more experiences.
And I feel like that's pretty interesting to note, because there's an annoying stereotype going around that most bi people, especially bi women, will only fall into opposite-sex experiences because they're a 1 or 2 the Kinsey scale. Obviously those people are valid too, but I don't think they represent the majority of bi people, and there's often some invalidation coming when people say that. I saw this study posted on Reddit, and people were like "it's probably just 99% straight kids looking for attention and trying to feel unique." That just isn't true.
Some anecdotal talk: I go to a progressive-ish college, and from my uni experience so far, I'd say like 1/4 of the people I became friends with at random (mostly guys) have ending up telling me they're LGBT in some form or another. And yeah, most of those people are bi.
Most bi people I know don't seem to have a preference at all, actually, a good chunk of them (including me) seem to have a preference for the same gender. I think I know one bi guy that says he only likes very feminine guys and enbies, so he's only been with girls so far. But other than that, all the bi people I know have either been with both main genders or only the same-gender! I had a talk with my straight friends actually, a lot of them said they have maybe a 5% same-sex attraction, but wouldn't identify as anything but straight because they can't see themselves with the same gender. I mean they could if they wanted to, that's probably an even much larger chunk of the population, but I'm assuming most people like that will keep identifying as straight.
It's mainly an increase of bisexuals. We're taking over the world lmao
Again my crackhead theory that the majority is bi is supported yet again, in this lecture i will
I'm not saying this is indicative of anything larger considering human sexuality is very different and much more complex, buuut I thought it'd be fun to note that nearly ALL Bonobos (our closest relatives along with Chimps) are bisexual by nature. All apes have observed gay sex, but for Bonobos, it's kind of their thing along with being constantly horny.
They fuck casually like us, having threesomes of all kinds, but are also very romantic, holding hands and giving gifts, and are apparently the only animal besides us that tongue kiss and have face-to-face sex, gazing into each others' eyes. And they practice consent as the norm (the females often prefer other females and are pickier to reject males).
Yup apparently 60% of ALL bonobo sex is observed as being "between two or more females"
That is one of the few things that gives me some hope for the future.
When I was in high school, being suspected of being gay was basically a season pass for every violent asshole to attack them.
Most bi people I know don't seem to have a preference at all
it me
Last time this came up I wondered how this was so much higher than local indigenous groups that haven't been tainted by Christianity being more like 10% lgbt. That's when I realized that being bisexual to them isn't really considered unusual enough to categorize as an "other." It's just assumed to be the default for them.
This of course varies by different cultures, but the ones that populate my area have this belief.
Same with ancient Romans/Greeks I believe? People who were exclusive to one gender were actually sometimes considered pompous or picky. Dudes could fuck dudes all they wanted, although it was strictly expected that lower social class people bottom for upper social class people (very taboo for poor people to be the penetrators), so you had a lot bottomphobia tied to class, crazy enough. That and pedophilia, much like Pre-Meiji Japan.
hellenistic sexuality afaik was still quite focused on reproduction, "Dudes could fuck dudes all they wanted" but beyond classed/aged expectations of sexual roles, it was also expected that they'd marry & carry on the lineage.
which is why it's weird talking about 'gay' or 'straight' hellenistic people, since their baselines & definitions of deviancy were very different. it's quite difficult to say if someone like Alexander (who verifiably fucked men & women) was conforming to societal expectations or merely indulging what we would call bisexuality
For selfish reasons I'm kind of sad this wasn't a thing a couple of decades ago. It sucked coming of age being bi and being afraid that people would find out.
Lots of things sucks about the world today but this is one of the things that gives me hope. The kids are alright.
yeah it's kind of nuts how quick the culture shifted. a decade ago i went to a small high school in a liberal area and i didn't know a single queer classmate.
Yeah it’s changed a lot but it’s worth noting the statistic isn’t all out and open people. Mostly? Probably yeah, but the survey makes it clear it’s designed for anonymity/ protects all your identifying information when you take it, so some kids might not identify as straight on the test but’ll be deep in the closet irl, especially in conservative hellscapes. At least until they graduate and get the hell out of there.
I will say my cousin goes to a school in a small lib town and says it’s very queer and that there were two prom kings his freshman year, two prom queens his sophomore year (he’s going into junior year now)
Also, for the longst tome people were highly dismissive of the Kinsey scale bexause "there are more gay people than bi people". But it turns out that probably most bi people on the mostly straight side of the scale just never came out. Which isn't a shocking outcome.
i mean i think it is a reductive flattening of complex human experiences for the purposes of scientific quantifiability, but it definitely beats "bis don't real."
I was in high school in the late 90s. Granted, this was a in conservative Midwestern US suburb so YMMV… but in my high school of -2,000 students not a single one was openly LGBTQ (or at least they were extremely low key about it). There was one teacher who didn’t explicitly say it but did everything but spell it out for you. Things really have changed since then.
When I was in highschool, basically no one was out as gay or bi and I didn't even know being trans or non-binary was even a thing. I'm in university now in my early 30s and basically everyone here is LGBTQ (okay, being in the philosophy department probably skews the numbers a bit compared to if I was in the business department or something, but still). Even the people who aren't are like fine with it. It's so normal now. Like shit is still fucked but it's crazy how much has changed in a short time. Like there is a huge attack on trans people right now and I don't want to minimize that. But the reason that is even happening is because so much has changed. They would never have needed to do something like that 20 years ago because being anti-trans was just the accepted completely dominant position.
Yeah I'm only 20 and grew up in a small town that definintely had it's homophobia, so I was closeted for all of HS. But seeing it so widely accepted in college even among frat boy types, who have a lot of queer members themselves, definintely helped me accept myself more. So far every straight guy I've talked to told me they have a bi or gay friend when I told them I'm bi. Some of them even acted as wingmen without asking and that's how I had my first two gay kisses.
Being with other masculine guys also kinda defied heteronormative expectations in my head where I figured I had to be "the man of the relationship" in a gay relationship or whatever. Kinda realized that that can be both of our jobs. I mean, this super cute guy tried to teach me how to play the guitar by moving my fingers, wrote me an original song, and bought me real AND lego flowers, had me kicking my feet in the air like a teenage girl lmao
Honestly cried a few happy tears reading this, I love hearing shit like this. Glad things are going well for you like that :D
I'm also in uni and have had a similar experience meeting queer people everywhere on campus, but most guys (and girls) I've talked to have only been interested in hook ups or situationships, never anything serious 😭 though I must admit I don't really put myself out there much in the first place
28 and even just 10 years ago I was terrified of classmates knowing that I was trans. I remember one kid who was openly gay and decently accepted but anti trans jokes were still the norm if the topic came up.
I think a big part of this is the area, rural south is still rough for LGBT youth even now after all. But it's gotten a lot better extremely fast at least.
Hell even just a bit before that when I was in mid teens one of tge psychiatrists was trying to convince my parents it was just a fetish. I think I got unlucky cause he was an old old dude but still, I don't see that happening as often anymore unless you seek out a conservative on purpose.
if you're curious about other generations, millennials, gen x, boomers, and silent gen are 10%, 4%, 2%, and 1% openly queer, respectively.
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What's weird is every generation but gen z has around 7% "no response," which doesn't count in the survey. <3% of boomers and <1% of silent gen say they're LGBT, and yet 7% of those generations declined to answer.
At this doubling rate, we will achieve a supermajority of LGBTQ+ high schoolers by around 2040.
I reckon at this rate, by 2100 more than 6400% of highschoolers will be queer
I actually find it depressing how much the number has changed. Obviously better than going the opposite direction, but it really shows how many people had been suffering with staying in the closet.
It's bittersweet. Thinking about how many queer boomers will have lived their entire lives closeted really sucks.
LEAK: Latin American countries push back on Ukraine, EU agenda ahead of joint summit
Zelensky has been uninvited to the joint summit between EU and SA countries, and the SA countries are also requesting that any support for Ukraine be removed from the proposal.
I think you got sent to the wrong thread. It's not hard to have happen at the moment, if you have the live updates to the thread list turned on.
Oh I guess I did? Super weird, I can see the mega thread comments but the actual post is the CDC study
Same, also, sometimes my post will have a different amount of upvotes than what it really is and I'll refresh it and it'll change drastically. Like one time I was surprised because I had 50 upvotes in 20 minutes and then refreshed to see I had 5 lmao.
if you have the live updates to the thread list turned on
Is there a setting I'm not aware of that allows one to turn this off?
I wonder what percentage of it is high schoolers fucking around. I remember back in middle and high school my friends and I would fill out surveys saying we were white with Hispanic origins, gay, and our families made over $100k a year lol
Honestly I could see a few kids doing that but not enough to truly skew the results. And like parts of survey on race and family income are pretty consistent with official numbers
Well are you all white gays with hispanic origins now and your families currently make over 100k a year?
I didn't read the full article but I think the lizardman example is a bit more extreme than this, although people still make gay jokes, answering you're queer in a survey isn't as funny as answering a conspiracy theory. I could guess maybe around 1-2% troll answers, tho I have no idea (either way, definintely far outweighed by the amount of people still in the closet).
I feel like the more absurd a certain answer is the more people are willing to lie, and being queer isn't an absurd response anymore when you'll probably have queer kids in every classroom. There were a lot of other questions in the poll I could see a lot more people giving troll answers on (illicit drug/opioid use, STI infection, "four or more lifetime sexual partners," etc.).
I'm happy to see this. People growing up being able to have the freedom in society to live a more fulfilled life in this respect. It saddens me to think of all the countless generations before who were not able to.
That and the people in most eastern cultures still not able to, despite very sexually fluid histories before western influence/imperialism.
Yes. I sincerely hope things improve for them in the future. There was precedent for it before the violent imposition of Victorian norms erased it from people's consciousness.
It's their "Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System," sounds a little fishy but they're a fairly lib organization. They measure things like mental health, drug use, depression, bullying, unstable housing, testing for STIs, and safe sex practices (which can be correlated to how restricted sex ed at certain schools/states is), and they might tie those factors into minority demographics to see what groups are at high risk.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/YRBS_Data-Summary-Trends_Report2023_508.pdf
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Looking closer at this, some of the findings are honestly incredibly scary. Queer students are twice as likely to use illicit drugs, twice as likely to have experienced sexual violence, twice as likely to experience unstable housing, three times as likely to attempt suicide, and four times as likely to have been raped.
I honestly think only a plurality of people are cisgender heterosexual heteroromantic. It could be as low as 30% if we account for demigenders/demisexuals/demiromantics.
