CDC Survey Yields Disturbing Results About Adolescent Sexuality

A recent national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals the extent to which confusion over sexuality has taken hold amongst American teenagers.

Conducted in 2021, the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey asked more than 12,000 high school students aged 14 to 18 about their sexual identities. The survey showed that a startling 24.1% of students do not identify themselves as heterosexual. While only 3.2% of students self-identified as gay or lesbian, 11.9% of students self-identified as bisexual and 9.0% described themselves as “other/questioning.” Only 61.6% of female respondents self-identified as heterosexual; a whopping 20% of girls described themselves as bisexual.

According to a one-sided report in the New York Post, “the number of LGBTQ people continues to rise every year. A Gallup poll released in February showed that 7.2% of adult Americans are ‘something other than heterosexual.’” The Post added that the CDC “urged schools to create a ‘more inclusive’ environment for queer teens” through the use of LGBT alliances, so-called “safe spaces,” and enforcement of policies against harassment. The CDC also reportedly found that almost 70% of students who identified as LGBTQ felt persistent hopelessness or sadness, while more than 50% had poor mental health.

The CDC should not have conducted this survey. There are two reasons why this is so. First, the age of consent to sexual activity in the United States ranges from age 16 to age 18, and the vast majority of U.S. states declare that a person reaches legal adulthood at age 18. It is intrusive and inappropriate for the federal government to survey high school students about their sexuality when some of the students surveyed have not yet reached the age of consent and when few are legal adults. Second, and more importantly, the government should never use bogus categories like “gay,” “lesbian,” and “bisexual.” These so-called identities are deceptions, and our government should not treat them otherwise.

Despite the fact that the CDC survey should never have been taken, its results are informative. This survey clearly demonstrates that secular liberals’ relentless efforts to treat homosexual behavior as normal and good have had a dramatic effect on impressionable young Americans. The fact that the percentage of high school students identifying themselves as something other than heterosexual (24.1%) is more than triple the percentage of adults who identify themselves as something other than heterosexual (7.2%) is not a coincidence. Young Americans are being lied to, and many of them are believing the lies. The truth is this: God made humans male and female, and He made us heterosexual. When He created the world, God commanded Adam and Eve to “be fruitful, and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). It is His will for us to express our sexuality through the heterosexual union known as marriage or to refrain from expressing our sexuality altogether. While some people experience sexual attraction to others of the same sex, no one is obliged to act upon those desires (see I Corinthians 6:9-11). The consequences—both temporal and eternal—of such behavior are catastrophic, and God in His mercy has set boundaries to protect us from those consequences.

It may be that someone reading this commentary believes that they are gay, lesbian, or bisexual. To that reader, we say this: God loves you. He made you. He did not make you gay, lesbian, or bisexual. His plan and purpose for your life is far better than any plan you could create for yourself. It is His desire for you to know Him and follow Him.