Well, here's an interesting new tidbit of info to arm yourself with during pride month.
A new study published by Duke University shows that a large number of individuals who identify as LGBT actually end up "switching back" to heterosexual in just a few years' time.
First, the gays, which is a lower number:
A total of 8.6 percent of people who identified as gay and lesbian in the first wave changed their identity to heterosexual by the second wave (in other words, roughly six years later).
But yeah, they're all "born this way" and it's not because there is a vicious social contagion fueled by media, pop culture, and social media.
So, nearly one in ten gays and lesbians got a little older a little wiser, and realized that they weren't actually gay. They were probably just told that they were.
But the numbers for the BTQ+ are even more staggering.
The switch was even more dramatic within other LGBT categories. Among those who identified as bisexual, 44 percent changed their identity to heterosexual.
Yeah, about half of bisexuals aren't bisexual at all. In six years' time 44% "discovered" that they were also straight. Crazy!
And among those who identified as "other" – a category that includes transgender individuals – a total of 69.6 percent changed to heterosexual. Even among those who didn't want to disclose their sexual identity in the first wave, 62.2 percent identified as heterosexual by the second wave.
70% of people who identified as trans or Q+Whatever in the first wave of the study STOPPED identifying as such and began identifying as heterosexual by the second wave of the study just 6 years later!
This study was done on people of all different ages, income levels, and socio-economic backgrounds. And in the follow-ups, a trans person was more likely to have dropped the rainbow identity and returned to straight than to not have done so.
Good thing we aren't letting little kids pick their gender and get life-changing surgeries and hormone treatments, right? Right?
By the way, only 3% of people who identified as straight dropped that designation during the time between surveys.
Almost like the entire rainbow coalition is made up of jellyfish who are incredibly open to suggestion and influence.
