Sexual Identity Confusion:
In a recent study (Gallup 2024) of sexual identity in the US, 30% of female respondents between 18 and 26 self-identified as LGBTQ. In the Ivy League colleges, the numbers are even higher for both men and women. At Brown University, a 2023 study showed that nearly 40% of the students identified as such.
The reason for these exploding trends: Most likely “herd mentality”, which can lead the most intelligent people to conform what they think will be honored and respected most. This phenomena is the same one that can explain how any society or massive group of people can adopt beliefs or behaviors that are irrational or even dangerous:
There are other reasons for these high numbers, which I am directly privy to as someone whose job it is to explore the deeper motives behind people’s identity choices and behaviors. For example, I’ve met men and women who really believed that they were “inherently and immutably gay or lesbian” simply because of a crush they had on a friend, or some enjoyable same-sex play in high school. The culture is leading people to consider same-sex feelings and behaviors as so unusual, that its presence must be a sign of being inherently different and “gay”.
Additionally, because the definition of being gay or being lesbian is so unspecific, it has increasingly cast a wider net, drawing in people who are not necessarily confused about their sexual or gender feelings, but who are emotionally deprived of their basic social needs such as belonging, recognition, power, independence, life-purpose and admiration, needs that they are led to see the LBGTQ+ identity and community fulfilling in a meaningful and lasting way.
Several young adult men and women whom I worked with, for example, insisted that they were “inherently gay” just on the basis of finding some of their same-sex peers to be attractive. Only a few had any actual intimate relationship or sexual experience. How did this make sense? Only after learning more about their backgrounds, did I see what was happening. Many of them suffered with long histories of feeling socially excluded or being called “weird” by their peer groups and communities. They couldn’t feel belonging from within, and so found it quickly from without, mainly through social-media. Some felt overly controlled by their parents and religious expectations from a very young age. As young adults they took great pleasure in finally taking control by rejecting their family traditions and insisting on their own rules of conduct, even if people didn’t like it.
These are the same underlying issues that propel young adults to define themselves by and throw themselves into any type of pro-social or anti-social movement. But with the LGBTQ+ movement, the “cause” that they are joining tends to be an empty self-serving one, with no greater purpose than to validate itself, affirm people’s “right” to behave as they please and defy authority while creating great social disruption. Also, unlike other prosocial and antisocial groups that young people might latch onto, the LGBTQ+ movement tells people “who they are at their core”, making it especially difficult to reconsider such an identity when it no longer serves their needs. Further, it is not uncommon for gay identified people and groups to be harshly critical, guilting and unforgiving when a fellow “gay member” considers “leaving the lifestyle” to pursue a heterosexual life and family.
There are other possible explanations, but the large percentages of people adopting these terms, at younger and younger ages, and in both secular and religious communities, is enough to tell us that an irrational trend is very much afoot.