Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. On an especially prescient episode of Seinfeld, Kramer refused to wear the ribbon during a walkathon to support AIDS research.
Well, last month, life imitated art a bit at a school in Burlington, Massachusetts, when a group of middle schoolers there refused to participate in Pride Day. Instead of wearing rainbow colors, which they had been asked to do, many wore black or even red, white, and blue.
Some announced their pronouns as U.S. and A. When teachers and community leaders denounced their sacrilege, parents came to their kids' defense. One mom said, and I quote, "I wish these schools would just pump the brakes on what they're shoving down our kids' throats." End quote.
Well, this might not be a random accident. After astonishing growth in the last few decades, the number of young people who identify as LGBT is now in steep decline. For example, trans identification, according to Professor and author Eric Kaufman, is in freefall, and non-conforming sexual identity is also in sharp decline. Last year, his report on the student body survey from the exclusive Phillips Academy Andover found a drop from over nine percent non-binary in 2023 to three percent in 2025. His report, of course, was quickly and loudly condemned as being flawed.
However, at the end of September, Dr. Gene Twangy confirmed that not only there's been a shift in younger Americans identifying as LGBT, but that the largest declines are among the youngest teenage cohorts. As Twangy put it, and I quote, "The headline result is for ninth graders, 14 and 15 years old." Identifying as L G B absolutely plummets between two thousand and twenty three and two thousand and twenty five, from seventeen percent to eleven percent. Also, the largest decline has been among younger teenage girls, the group that had experienced the largest increase in L G B T identification between two thousand and fifteen and two thousand and twenty one.
Now, the most likely explanation for the significant change is that the high level of identification from previous years was the result of a social contagion. One that was brought on by, among other things, COVID isolation and the attending upsurge in social media interaction. Clearly, the growth in LGBT identification was not a naturally occurring event, and of course, that was always obvious. Back in the early 2010s, we were still critiquing the Kinsey report claim that 10% of people were gay and lesbian. But in the decade that followed, that number ballooned as quickly as new letters could be added to the ever-growing act.
Acronym of sexual identifications, school teachers and youth pastors were reporting that all of their students were identifying as LGBT. Because, as one once told me, and I quote, "No one wants to be cis or straight anymore." But today, it seems for younger Americans, the novelty of being gay, bi, non-binary, and trans is wearing off.
However, at the same time, as Twangy discussed in a Substack post a week earlier, the numbers have not moved significantly for older Americans, especially for millennial women. That means that young people will continue to be taught and be influenced by adults who remain as convinced that it is their sacred duty to promote LGBT identification and lifestyles to children, and that means that young people who question the validity of such categories will inevitably find themselves in conflict with older true believers. After all, to anyone who's built their own identity on being a "quote unquote" ally of pride, the shift in sexual identification will be a tangible threat. A refusal to go along with pride celebrations will be shocking. Even more, admitting wrong is unthinkable because that means admitting that children have been harmed, that irreversible medical so-called treatments were really for nothing, and that threatening parents with blame for a child's suicide was manipulation without cause.
So the conflict is coming, but still, it's going to be hard for allies to be able to claim that the early 2020s upsurge in LGBT identification was a naturally occurring phenomenon of students who were just trying to be true to themselves. No, biological reality has always been on the side of truth, and that's why it's our responsibility as Christians to be on the side of truth as well. But as truth continues to change hearts and minds, the very next trend line could be an influx of people who are forced to. Acknowledge how they messed up their own lives and maybe the lives of children. They're going to need to know what's true about who we are, male and female.
But they're also going to need to know that repentance is a good thing, that forgiveness is available to them, and that restoration is possible. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Dr. Timothy Paget. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download podcasts.
And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to Breakpoint.org. Breakpoint listeners in Colorado, we're excited to invite you to join us for an event at Colorado Christian University with Dr. Christopher Watkins on remaining human in the AI age on Monday, November 16th at 7 p.m. AI promises remarkable opportunities, but with them comes the risk of misshaping what it means to be human. Human beings are made in the image of God, endowed with a dignity we receive rather than manufacture.
Dr. Watkins will help us consider what this vision means for our use of AI, our relationships, our work, and worship, and for the challenge of remaining fully human in an age increasingly shaped by AI. Join us November 16th at 7 p.m. at Colorado Christian University. Register for free at ColsonCenter.org/Colorado.
That's ColsonCenter. org/slash Colorado.
