Three out of every four teenagers who question their gender identity report a history of abuse, according to a study from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released April 28.
The CDC study defines gender-“questioning” as someone who agrees with the statement, “I am not sure about my sexual identity.” Among youth surveyed, 5.2% said their sexual identity was “questioning.”
The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) is conducted every other year, and measures the “health-related behaviors” of high school students. The YRBSS is typically conducted during odd number years, from January to June, but was postponed to September-December in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A nationally representative sample of schools are chosen to compete a list of 99 questions. Categories of sexual orientation such as, “I am not sure about my sexual identity (questioning),” “I describe my sexual identity in some other way” and “I do not know what this question is asking” were added to the survey in 2021, according to the CDC.
The study found that during the pandemic, 55% of students reported abuse by a parent or another adult in the home, including 66% of non-Hispanic multiracial students and 76% of students identifying as “questioning” or other. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Children’s Hospital Offers Consultations On Transgender Treatments To Kids Younger Than 10)
In a new CDC youth survey, 1 in 4 high school students identify as something other than straight, more than double than previous years. See more: https://t.co/FTSGStRGyj pic.twitter.com/1ilX0CYKsg
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) April 28, 2023
Roughly three-quarters of high school students surveyed identified as heterosexual in 2021, according to the poll, while 3.2% identified as gay or lesbian, 12.1% as bisexual and 5.2% as “questioning.” Students reported sexual contact with opposite sex partners at a rate of approximately 34.6%, with same-sex partners at 2.4% and with both sexes at 6%. Fifty-seven percent of high school students reported having no sexual contact throughout their lives, according to the study.
A CDC study released in 2022 found one-in-five high schoolers identify as something other than heterosexual. A May 2022 study from the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI) found the rate of people who identify as LGBT is increasing faster than the rate of people actually reporting sex with partners not of the opposite sex.
“Whereas in 2008 attitudes and behavior were similar, by 2021 LGBT identification was running at twice the rate of LGBT sexual behavior,” according to the report.