02/02/2019
Sky News reports that new data from the Office of National Statistics shows that younger people between the ages of sixteen and twenty four are around twice as likely to identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual than other generational groups. Commentators and data analysts have speculated that this rise in self identification is because of younger people being more likely to explore their sexual diversity and also because society has become much more liberal in the last thirty years on issues such as sexual orientation and identity. Commenting on the Sky News Television Channel, Stig Abell from the Times Literary Supplement remarked that it was positive that things had changed so radically in a relatively short space of time. Some LGBT activists have noted that the figures on LGB identities are only part of the story of young people's identities however. Although research is in its infancy, anecdotal evidence suggests that the young are more likely to be gender fluid, and have a newer sexual self identity such as pansexual or post-sexual. These newer identities can sometimes clash with the more traditional gay and lesbian labels and have caused some anxiety amongst traditionalist lesbians and gay men.
