U.S. Teens Identifying as Heterosexual at Record Low: CDC Report

Recent data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that the number of U.S. high school students who identify as heterosexual has dropped significantly in recent years, RT News reports.

Based on data collected in 2021, the report found that only 72.4% of high schoolers identify as straight, compared to nearly 90% in 2015.

This decrease coincides with a rise in the number of students identifying as homosexual, bisexual, or questioning their sexuality.

The CDC’s report, released on Thursday, broke down the findings as follows: 3.2% of students identify as gay or lesbian, 12% as bisexual, and 9% as either “other” or “questioning.”

The data indicates that over a quarter of high school students now place themselves in one of these three categories.

When analyzed by gender, the report found that girls were more likely to identify as non-heterosexual than boys.

In fact, female students were five times more likely to consider themselves bisexual (20% vs. 4%) and four times more likely to fall into the ‘other’ category (13.7% vs. 3.7%).

The CDC acknowledged the possibility that the increase in non-heterosexual identification might be influenced by changes in how questions were phrased in their surveys.

The agency pointed out that responses such as “I am not sure about my sexual identity” or “I describe my sexual identity in some other way” were not included in previous questionnaires.

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