Less gay than yesterday?

The recent declines appear in non-heterosexual sexual activity, not just in identity

In a previous post, I found that identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual plummeted among U.S. young adults after 2022, with most of the decline driven by fewer women identifying as bisexual.

But are younger adults just less likely to identify as non-heterosexual, or are they also less likely to engage in non-heterosexual sexual activity? In other words, are there trends in behavior, or just identity?

One of the few national surveys that has measured sexual activity over time is the General Social Survey (GSS) — it’s asked American adults about the sex of their sex partners since 1988. Unfortunately the survey didn’t ask all of the questions about sexual activity in 2024, but it did ask people whether they had sex with men, women, or both in the last year.

Since the sample sizes of the GSS are smaller than some other national surveys, I broadened the age range for younger adults to 18 to 39 to make sure there were at least ~500 respondents for each year, and thus at least ~250 or more for each sex.

As always, take these results with the caveat that future years will give us a clearer picture of what’s going on.

So what are the trends in non-heterosexual sex among younger adults in the U.S.?