Increasing Bisexual Identities Reflect More Than Just a Fad
- David J. Ley Ph.D.
- Aug 22
- 4 min read
Survey finds younger generations reflect more same sex attractions and behaviors.
Surveys consistently show that younger people are more likely to identify as non-heterosexual.
Sexual orientation involves self-identification, arousal/attractions and behaviors.
Clearer Thinking found younger people report increased same sex attractions and behaviors, not just identity.
Increased bisexual identification appears to reflect more than just a fad or social bandwagon.
Recent years have seen a slew of polls showing a significant increase in people in the United States who identify as non-heterosexual, particularly amongst younger generations. Nearly one quarter of 18–27-year-olds (Gen Z) identify as LGBTQ, and half of those are self-identified bisexuals.
What’s driving this increase, and is it “real”? This dramatic rise in bisexuality has led many to question whether this bisexual identity reflects true sexual interest in both sexes, or whether it might reflect social dynamics that have elevated the value of non-heterosexual identity. These questions aren’t new - in the 1970’s, Newsweek suggested rising bisexuality was popular because it was “Chic.”
Bisexuality is often questioned by both heterosexuals and homosexuals, challenged as “just a phase,” as “performative,” or “confusion.” As a group, bisexuals tend to be the least “out,” compared to other sexual orientations, at least, in past generations. This is referred to as bi invisibility. But, in the younger generations, this trend appears to be changing significantly, with more and more young people identifying as bisexual.
But, is identifying as bisexual enough? Researchers and clinicians view sexual orientation as a complex concept that involves one’s self-identity, but also involves behaviors as well as sexual arousal. There are individuals who identify as homosexual, but live heterosexual lives. There are men and women who identify as heterosexual, but engage in sexual behaviors with same sex partners, sometimes for money, sometimes for fun or excitement. There are people who live as heterosexuals, who have only ever had sex with opposite partners, but whose sexual arousal is primarily towards same sex persons. As a result, our view of sexual orientation must take these different aspects into consideration, encompassing identity, arousal, and behaviors.
Clearer Thinking Survey
A group of pollsters at Clearer Thinking undertook a survey to investigate what was behind these recent increases in bisexual identity in younger people - is it “just a fad,” or does it reflect actual changes in sexuality? Clearer Thinking is a not-for-profit project that offers free educational tools to the public on a wide variety of topics. Their mission is to improve society by helping people improve their decision-making, boost critical thinking, and make positive behavior changes.
Spencer Greenberg is the founder and went into this investigation thinking that rising bisexual identities were caused by changes in just identity, not by changes in underlying sexual attraction. The results they found changed Spencer's mind.
Clearer Thinking surveyed about six hundred people of various ages, pulling these individuals from their participant recruitment site, Positly as well as social media. It assessed respondents’ sexual identities, as well as how often they found same sex persons sexually attractive, how attracted they are to same sex body parts, whether they’ve ever had sex with a person of the same sex, and finally, the sex of their most recent sexual partner.
Consistent with numerous other studies and polls, their survey found that younger people were increasingly likely to report bisexuality, compared to older generations. But these increases weren’t just in identity, but in attractions and behaviors.
About 25% of Gen-Z respondents reported that almost a quarter of the people they were sexually attracted to were of the same sex, compared to only 6% of older generations who had such attraction patterns. Reporting that they were very often attracted to persons of the same sex showed the greatest overall increase across generations.
Younger generations were increasingly likely to report being attracted to same-sex body parts, even when not identifying as gay.
Younger generations were more likely to report ever having had sex with a same-sex partner, but not identifying as gay. Interestingly, in this measure, Gen Xers were more likely to report same sex experiences than Gen Z, but both generations reported far more same-sex sexual experiences than Baby Boomers. The authors suggest that the difference between Gen Z and Gen X may merely reflect that Gen Z is younger and hasn’t had as many sexual partners in their shorter lives.
Women were more likely to identify as bisexual, compared to men (29% vs 12%).
Liberal or progressive political views predicted a greater likelihood of bisexuality compared to right-wing or conservative political values.
Across all respondents, consistently smaller percentages reported that their most recent sexual partner was of the same sex.
Limitations and Conclusions
Clearer Thinking’s survey wasn’t conducted as academic research, and Spencer Greenberg told me by email that they’re not likely to submit this work to peer review, as they deemed the extra time it would take to publish academically for this work to not be worth the tradeoff. So, we don’t know if these findings would hold up in more rigorous research methodology. It’s possible that respondents were not honest, or that the survey sample isn’t reflective of the general population. However, as these findings are generally consistent with numerous other published research studies, these results seem likely to replicate, at least in part.
This survey is cross-sectional, and doesn’t provide insights into why these changes in sexuality are occurring. But, these results suggest strongly that increasing bisexual identities aren’t just a fad, but reflect real generational changes in both sexual behaviors and sexual arousal/attractions. It’s not just increased identification as bisexual, but that more younger people are having sex with same sex partners and are more likely to report that they are often sexually attracted to persons of the same sex. In fact, being same sex attracted appears to be increasing more than changes in sexual identification.
