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Detransitioner Casts Doubt on Decline in Teen Gay and Bisexual Identification
ReDetransitioner Casts Doubt on Decline in Teen Gay and Bisexual Identification
Walt Heyer, who lived as a woman for eight years before detransitioning, says social media pressure and peer dynamics may distort recent CDC data showing a sharp drop in ninth-grade girls identifying as lesbian or bisexual.
A man who lived as a woman for eight years before detransitioning is questioning whether recent federal data showing a sharp decline in teenagers identifying as gay or bisexual reflects a real shift in sexual orientation or is being distorted by social pressure and online dynamics.
Walt Heyer, who detransitioned roughly four decades ago and is now a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, said in an exclusive video interview that he is skeptical of reports describing a dramatic drop. «I don't really believe that there's a big dramatic free fall,» Heyer said, referring to recent coverage of declining rates of gay and bisexual identification among some teenagers.
The comments follow reporting by The Washington Post on CDC data showing that the percentage of ninth-grade girls identifying as lesbian or bisexual fell from 30% in 2021 to 17% in 2025. The share identifying as bisexual alone dropped from 26% to 13% over the same period. The percentage of boys identifying as gay or bisexual has remained largely unchanged over the past decade, while the share of high school girls identifying as lesbian or bisexual surged after the COVID-19 pandemic before beginning to decline.
Heyer attributed part of the apparent shift to social media, arguing that some teenagers may withhold their sexual orientation rather than openly identify as gay or bisexual. «I think what's happening is that, because of social media, there's a lot more influence on people who may not want to fall into that classification on a social media level and will withhold the fact that they are gay or bisexual but really don't want to openly admit it,» he said.
He also pointed to peer dynamics in schools, saying he has spoken with people who described being pressured either to identify a certain way or to avoid doing so. «I've had actual people in school saying that they're bullied into identifying one way, or they're bullying and bullied to not identify that way,» Heyer said. He added that many young people are «sort of coerced by their peers to say things one way or the other,» which he said makes him skeptical of self-reported data on sexual orientation.
Heyer, an author and co-author of multiple books including «Trans Life Survivors» and «Paper Genders,» has spent years working with people questioning their gender identities. He said adults should focus on affirming what he considers factual reality, arguing that no one has ever biologically changed their gender. «I went through the hormones, had all the surgeries, identified that way,» he said. «So far in all world history, nobody has actually biologically changed their gender. This is a cosmetic social appearance. It is not a biological change.»
He further argued that the procedures and terminology surrounding gender transition represent what he called «God rejecting labels» and «God rejecting procedures,» describing them as a way for young people and adults to reject religious belief. He did not offer specific evidence for that claim beyond his own experience and work with detransitioners.
Heyer urged researchers to conduct additional studies before drawing firm conclusions from the CDC figures. «I just think it's important for us to be much more thorough and go to other areas before we come to some conclusion that there's a giant, giant drop in these identities,» he said. «I don't think we're there yet.»
The data at the center of the debate comes from the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which tracks health behaviors among high school students. The survey has shown significant shifts in how teenagers describe their sexual orientation in recent years, with the most pronounced changes among girls. Researchers have not settled on a single explanation for the decline, and the figures continue to be cited in broader debates over gender identity, sexuality, and how young people form and report their sense of self.
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