Generational Increase In Bisexuality

An interesting article claims the number of people who identify as bisexual has roughly doubled with each generation.

https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/the-bisexual-revolution

“Clearthinking” is a self-help site that claims to use research-based tools to improve decision making, critical thinking, and behavior changes. I always wince at these articles – but it has some interesting info. Some key points I picked out and summarized if you’re too lazy to read the entire article. Curious what others think: is this true, if so why, etc. I’ll expand on my thoughts in a later post.

The article cites a Gallup poll (without a reference) showing the number of people who identify as LGBTQ has roughly doubled with each generation. When Gallup broke down the data, they found that the numbers for gay, lesbian, and transgender identification increased by small amounts. But the number of people identifying as bisexual has had a meteoric rise.

• 1.9% of Gen X’ers consider themselves bi. That triples to
• 5.9% of Millennials, and almost triples again for
• 15.3% Gen Z, to 15.3%.

ClearThinking then ran their own poll (608 respondents) to try to determine the dramatic increase in bisexual identification. They cite three possible reasons: Social Bandwagoning; Increasing Acceptance; or Increasing Bisexual Feelings (the article seems to conclude people are becoming more bi-sexual).

Note they are talking about bisexual identification, they don’t bring up bisexual activity. Their poll also showed 29% women identify as bisexual vs 12% of men.

I suspect the actual numbers partaking in bisexual activity will have remained pretty constant. More likely a willingness to admit to do it even anonymously has changed over time, with a higher degree of acceptance of it.. We should also remember how recently homosexuality was still a crime in many places. As example in Scotland I think it was early 1980's. it was decriminalised. So those that did play were likely to be very secretive.

I definitely had sexual feelings for both men and women. In fact, I sucked my first cock at 8. However, I never admitted it until I was 86 ,and had my first homosexual experience at 88. Now, I lead a totally gay sex life,,and while I still like women sexually, that part is over. I'm just happy to have lived long enough to know men are very nice also!

@Rigel This is very interesting. Thank you for sharing and summarizing. I can certainly understand as communities relax their control and let individuals flourish, the numbers rise to better reflect the true nature of the democratic. I’m a bit skeptical that rising rates cause bisexuality, but they would certainly allow those with repressed feelings to more easily be self-discovered and explored.

I think this strongly suppports the theory of a sliding scale from straight to gay and all the various places in between. Many people grow up without the freedom to explore the scale for themselves without outside pressures.

While progress feels slow at times, I do think overall we are moving towards a more tolerant world, where more people will be able to explore and enjoy their lives as they wish. I think this is a good thing.

What @Hookajoe said. I doubt the actual incidents of people who are bisexual are growing, the number of people who will admit it is growing due to increased acceptance and in some cases bandwagoning

I have always believed we were made to be bisexual by nature. Our parts work as well for pleasure with any gender we decide to have sex with.

The only difference is at least in the West that bisexuality has been increasingly more acceptable over time. It is a new world out there for sexual freedom and exploration compared to the 20th century. The increase in bisexuality reflected in the polls does not show that there are more bisexuals; It is showing a greater degree of acceptance of bisexuality.

The Gay and straight communities placed bisexuals on the outer fringe. They, the bisexuals, have just not made up their minds yet.

Bi sexuality made you different, put you on the outside where you were just not part of any community. Not something people like to be, so you had to pick a team to play on, gay or straight, make up your mind!

Begrudgingly, the gay community recognized being bisexual as a thing of its own and took bisexuals in.

Now, being bisexual is accepted, and the stigma is gone. No need to choose a team to play on.

Bisexuality and gay/lesbian have less of a stigma over the past few generations. As it becomes more acceptable, I would agree that more are owning up or outing to it. Possibly more are curious and willing to expand their sexuality. Doubt there’s a huge increase, but I suspect there are more younger (not a huge number) people now willing to experiment than in the past.

@Bad_Princess I find the gay community can be some of the most insular and judgemental people out there when it comes to others sexuality.

I think that I would consider myself bi-curious, and maybe plus some. I have thought about and even fantasized about gay sex since puberty. It was on my mind a lot during the 80's when I was in my 20's, but I was pretty into casual dating of women at that time. The closest thing to an actual 'gay' encounter didn't happen until my later 40's maybe early 50's when I met up with another guy for enema play. I was naked, had his finger up my ass and I masturbated in his presence along with getting the enemas. However there was no other anal penetration between either of us and no oral contact either.

If it wasn't for the internet, I cannot fathom how that encounter could had ever been possible. How in the heck would conversations even suggesting such things ever get started, without such convenient anominity? I believe the "rise" in bisexuality is due mostly that people are freer to entertain such thoughts a lot more openly now, and at the same time more privately. Maybe so many of us here who feel that we might be getting more 'bi' as we get older, have been finding and accumulating more and more material that fuel the fantasies as we get older. The internet definitely offers easier ability to possibly connect to carry out real life and discreet encounters. When the day finally comes when I have my first real 'gay' encounter (which I hope to be at least receiving anal and giving oral), I am pretty sure that it will be with someone I have met on the internet.

Had there been an internet such as it is today back in the 80's, I'm pretty certain that I would have already had experience with gay sex.

I have loved sex with boys when I was in 7th grade. A group of us got together regularly. We liked to get naked and explore each other, concentrating on our little cock, balls and asses. My first male cock was from the brother of one of the guys. As we got older, we discovered girls. I always liked the boys to use me as their girl when their girl friends would not give them what they wanted. We both got what we enjoyed! They were now afraid being the feared Homos! It was OK to fuck a boy (me) and still remain male. I never cared.

I had my first girl when I was 16 in the backseat of my car at a drive in. I have loved girls and women ever since my first one - and many more! I still helped my friends out with taking them in me and loving it. I never considered my self homosexual but always enjoyed being used as (as I now see it) as a girl. I was romantic is girls and women, but have never felt romantic attraction to any man.

I married (a woman!) and had kids. I still loved to be with men so I used homosexual saunas ( before they were call Gay Baths!). Just for the pleasure of being with naked men, and more if it happened. There is something wonderful about how a little cock comes alive and grows and delivers! I'm sure my wife suspected my enjoyment with men but I only played when I was on business trips.

I am now 80 and very happy as a bisexual man who has experimented with almost everything. I have found more older men seeking man to man sex than previously. I think bisexuality if a natural human condition. Hopefully, more young people today will allow themselves the freedom to seek pleasure without guilt. What is to be guilty about enjoying oneself and no one being hurt?

I think more people are admitting to being bisexual than in the past.

Because in the society it is considered norm, more people admit it without complexes. However, I don’t think the actual proportion of hetero, homo and bi people have changed.

@hookajoe While progress feels slow at times, I do think overall we are moving towards a more tolerant world, where more people will be able to explore and enjoy their lives as they wish.

It would be more correct to say that some parts of the world, a minority area, might be moving towards more tolerance (which even that I truly doubt). Such a statement would also have to be compared to which starting dates you're talking about. If you were born around the 1950s, then yes, there has been a positive shift.

For younger people though, born in the late 1980s/1990s I can only see a slow sliding off of attitudes. All you need do is follow the news and you can see how government and religious attitudes are hardening against anything that deviates from accepted norms. There is a tightening, slow and steady and we are already on the downward swing of the pendulum.

There is general trend towards exclusion in so many areas of life and society. A tightening of our social circles, a rejection of anything, in the widest sense of the word, that has to do with an embracing of new attitudes. The world has had enough of any form of 'globalization' (even in sexual terms). The pushback has already started and members know very well about which nation(s) I am talking about.

I wonder if the increase is also because it gives one a more accepting image to others. The "influencers" helping to make bisexual a cool thing. Instead of the "evil" it may have once been.

I’m bi, and my own parents accept it… I guess… if not criticizing it and never discussing it constitutes acceptance. But I think there’s some stigma still in their minds. Im positive that if either of my parents were bi (maybe? I’ve wondered), they would NEVER admit it. I think it’s fear on their part… just old enough to remember when anything outside a ‘traditional’ relationship was basically forbidden or at least could exact a social or professional cost. My parents both grew up in the Midwest, in small traditional church-oriented communities.

My point is that I don’t think there’s an increase in bisexuality or any other sexuality, it’s just that people are more and more comfortable admitting it.

My point is that I don’t think there’s an increase in bisexuality or any other sexuality, it’s just that people are more and more comfortable admitting it.

I think that’s true. But as more become accepting of it, open about it, maybe others are willing to experiment or dive in and explore.

@GraceT There seems to be a higher degree of reluctance to accept anything other than heteroesxuality within communities with a larger religious population. I think that goes some way towards explaining why abusers in these communities got away with it for so long.

My point is that I don’t think there’s an increase in bisexuality or any other sexuality, it’s just that people are more and more comfortable admitting it.

I fear that if things continue as they are now, people will again become less and less comfortable about admitting to this or any other sort of divergent sexuality. That should be obvious ...

I think you are probably right @GraceT . A lot more acceptance these days, and a lot more awareness through social media etc.

You can't tell me that bisexuality started yesterday. What about gladiators couped up in areas under places like the Colaseum. regards, irrigator333

No one said bisexuality started yesterday or hasn’t been around for a long while. If you read the article, it claims bisexuality has increased over the past several generations, and they provide statistics (although unsubstantiated and possibly biased) to support this. One factor many support is simply more people are willing to come out, thus artificially raising the statistic over the past few generations. I agree with that, but isn’t it possible that because it’s more acceptable today aren’t more willing to stick a toe in the water and experiment? The articles conclusion is that the percentage has doubled each generation since the boomers

These self help groups tend to bias any data. It’s an interesting concept, but I don’t take it for gospel.

Possibly, the gladiators and Roman’s were more bisexual than today’s generation, but that’s not the gist of the article.

I think that it is a matter of opportunity . The advent of the internet has made it easier to be anonymous and search for each other .

What about lesbianism ? i hope that number of lesbians is 1000x more every year

lesbianism is very great

I will chime in being a bisexual male age 70.

My early years were definitely all heterosexual all the way up till my late 50s. But I always had thoughts of having sex with other men or boys as I entered puberty. As I entered adulthood, I suppressed those thoughts because I thought I would change my own self-identity if I ever had sex with a man- I would be leaving the comfortable world of being a member of the majority sexual party- heterosexuals. After my first MM experience I realized it really wasn't a life changing event after all. And more importantly I realized being bisexual was actually different from being gay. So, I began to feel comfortable with how I viewed myself and my sexuality.

It took the greater part of my life to come to this realization. Mostly I was battling the decades of societal shame that was given to anyone engaging in same sex relationships or just having a same sex partner as hugely taboo. So the stats from the OP's post show a generational increase in those identifying as bisexual. It does make me wonder what the contributing factors might be.

My theory is that we now have generations born in this century that have been exposed to the Internet since they were small kids. I think the Internet allows people to search and find just about anything including information on sexual behavior and how people self-identify with some type of sexual orientation. Before the Internet society offered two flavors hetero and homosexual identities. But now there are countless "flavors" being offered up and people are making choices. And more importantly there seems to be an acceptance among the peers within a generation to accept other's choices and not be judgmental thus allowing people to openly choose what feels right for them.

So maybe there always were that many bisexual people out in the world, but now people are much more comfortable admitting it where in the past they were not. I believe the numbers actually are much higher because there are a lot of people who are still afraid to act on their sexual yearnings for fear it could cause fallout with friends, family and co-workers.

Over my lifetime, I think we as a society have come a long way for the better. The more people are free to openly choose a sexual orientation that fits their inner most desires, the less stress they will have. Trying to force fit yourself into a sexual orientation that really doesn't work for you just causes a lot of stress. I think as a society we are quietly moving in the right direction.