Recent research from Gallup found that 5.6% of the US population identifies as LGBT, representing a 4.5% increase from 2017, the last year that Gallup collected data on this. Gallup Research points out that one of the reasons for this rise is that Generation Z is more likely to identify as LGBT than older generations. Currently, one in six Gen Zers identify as LGBT.

Of that one in six, 72% say that they are bisexual. Abigail Shrier has pointed out the way that LGBT-affirming curriculum in schools often reduces maleness and femaleness to rigid stereotypes, leading many students to embrace an LGBT identity because they do not feel like they fit those stereotypes. Shrier writes,

All this purported education encourages adolescents to focus relentlessly on their own gender identities and sexual orientations. It encourages students to look constantly for landmark feelings or impulses, anything that might point toward “genderfluid,” “genderqueer,” “asexual,” or “non-binary.” And it encourages the subtle formation of two camps: us and them. The imaginary divide between those who fit perfectly into cartoonish gender stereotypes and those who don’t. The dauntless young, who welcome different gender identities and sexual orientations, versus their phobic elders, who don’t.

When male and female are reduced to cartoonish stereotypes and students are encouraged to constantly question their identity and sexuality, students are likely to fixate on the slightest indication that they might be LGBT, even if they are attracted to members of the opposite sex. Given this, it’s not surprising that nearly three-quarters of young adults who identify as LGBT describe themselves as bisexual.

Gallup’s research also indicated an 800% increase in young people identifying as transgender. This uptick is consistent with the observations of researchers and journalists who have been pointing out the alarming rise of rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD.) Typically, gender dysphoria emerges around the ages of 2-4 and primarily affects boys. In recent years, however, the number of adolescent girls suddenly pursuing gender “transition” has skyrocketed, leading several researchers to point out that this looks more like a craze than typical gender dysphoria.

Alongside this trend, responding to gender dysphoria with a period of watchful waiting, rather than rushing children into transition, has been vilified. The vast majority of children who experience gender dysphoria become comfortable with their bodies by the time they reach adulthood if they are not encouraged to socially or medically transition. Rejecting the wait and see approach means ushering young people into a lifetime of risky surgeries and hormonal treatments that come with lifelong effects, including infertility, and potentially life-threatening health complications.

The consequences of this haphazard, medically irresponsible approach are already being seen in the UK, where the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic was sued by a young woman who was rushed into medical transition in her teens, only to regret the decision less than ten years later. The UK High Court rightly held that minors cannot legally consent to puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones because they are unable to grasp the full implications of such a drastic decision.

Given the skyrocketing numbers of young people who are identifying as transgender and being encouraged to make life-altering decisions by adults who are pushing an agenda, in the next 10-20 years in the US, we will likely see a rise in men and women who have been devastated by the harmful effects of the transgender agenda, regretting the irreversible decisions they made in their teens, and asking why the adults in their lives did nothing to stop them.

Gallup’s research is a reminder of the urgent need for Christians to speak up. The rise in adults and young people who identify as LGBT means that nearly everyone knows and cares about someone who identifies as LGBT. Speaking the truth in love can be difficult, especially when facing pressure from friends and family to affirm the LGBT movement, and unfortunately, many Evangelicals have caved to this pressure.

True compassion does not affirm a lie—we must not allow fear to drive us into silence. We also must not allow fear to drive us into bitterness because if it does, we will fail to engage compassionately and winsomely. This destructive movement is offering a false promise of identity and wholeness to people in need of real hope and healing that can only be found in Christ. We must point people to the truth.

(Image: Unsplash, Sharon McCutcheon)