CDC: Nearly 25 Percent of HS Students Don’t Identify as Straight

Nearly 25 percent of high school students identify as something other than straight, more than double than previous years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

Just 15 percent in 2017 answered that they were “gay,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” “or questioning” their sexual preference, though the CDC notes that changes to how it states the questions could be responsible for the rise.

“Increases in the percentage of LGBQ+ students in YRBSS 2021 might be a result of changes in question wording to include students identifying as questioning, ‘I am not sure about my sexual identity (questioning),’ or other, ‘I describe my sexual identity in some other way'” the agency wrote.

The survey, which monitors health behaviors that contribute markedly to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth in the United States, comes from data collected in fall 2021.

It also found that:

• more than 1 in 10 LGBQ+ students did not go to school because of safety concerns.
• nearly 1 in 4 experienced sexual violence, and nearly 1 in 4 were bullied at school.
• almost half of LGBQ+ students seriously considered attempting suicide.
• nearly 1 in 4 attempted suicide, and nearly 3 in 4 reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.
• 1 in 5 LGBQ+ students reported having ever used illicit drugs.
• When asked if they had been physically forced to perform a sexual activity they did not want to, 23% of bisexual students and 17% of lesbian and gay students said they had.