{"id":29576,"date":"2025-10-24T14:41:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=29576"},"modified":"2025-10-24T14:41:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:41:11","slug":"transgender-trend-sharply-declining-on-american-college-campuses-new-analysis-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/10\/transgender-trend-sharply-declining-on-american-college-campuses-new-analysis-finds","title":{"rendered":"Transgender &#8216;Trend&#8217; Sharply Declining on American College Campuses, New Analysis Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_29594\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29594\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/10\/Transgenderism_credit-Left-Adobe-Stock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29594\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/10\/Transgenderism_credit-Left-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29594\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The trans-identification trend among young people appears to be losing momentum.<\/p>\n<p>Recent data taken from college campuses shows a sharp decline in the number of Gen Zers identifying as transgender over the past three years.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, conducted his own analysis of a large nonprobability-based survey of U.S. undergraduates \u2014 which included a question asking them to identify their gender.<\/p>\n<p>Anything that isn&#8217;t a man or woman is considered &#8220;gender non-conforming,&#8221; the surveying organization shared with <em>Fox News Digital.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">1\/ NEW: trans identification is in free fall among the young<\/p>\n<p>(h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FIRE<\/a> data in particular) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/i0Z1BNcWG8\">pic.twitter.com\/i0Z1BNcWG8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Eric Kaufmann (@epkaufm) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/epkaufm\/status\/1978074195767480659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 14, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The possible answers are listed below.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Man<\/li>\n<li>Woman<\/li>\n<li>Nonbinary<\/li>\n<li>Agender<\/li>\n<li>Genderqueer or genderfluid<\/li>\n<li>Unsure<\/li>\n<li>Prefer not to say<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the 2025 survey of 68,000 students, only 3.6 percent of respondents identified as a gender other than male or female.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By comparison, the figure was 5.2 percent in 2024 and 6.8 percent in both 2022 and 2023,&#8221; Kaufmann wrote in his analysis, which was published on UnHerd.com.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In other words, the share of trans-identified students has effectively halved in just two years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The report also found that &#8220;non-conforming sexual identity&#8221; has sharply declined, according to Kaufmann. Those identifying as gay or lesbian remained &#8220;stable,&#8221; although heterosexuality has risen 10 points since 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, in 2024-2025, fewer college first-year students identified as &#8220;trans or queer&#8221; compared to seniors \u2014 which is the opposite of what occurred in the 2022-2023 year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This suggests that gender\/sexual non-conformity will continue to fall,&#8221; Kaufmann wrote in an X post sharing the data.<\/p>\n<p>The annual survey \u2014 College Free Speech Rankings \u2014 is conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>The aim is to gather students&#8217; opinions on freedom of speech, along with demographic information like gender.<\/p>\n<p>Kaufmann conducted his analyses using six years of demographic data from the survey, FIRE confirmed to<em> Fox News Digital<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>His independent report, &#8220;The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans,&#8221; was published by the Centre of Heterodox Social Science and has not been peer-reviewed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our survey looks at student attitudes for free expression and is conducted for that purpose,&#8221; FIRE told <em>Fox News Digital<\/em>. &#8220;As a side effect of asking demographic questions of so many respondents, one can glean trends in demographics, as Professor Kaufmann has done here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Reasons For the Decline<\/p>\n<p>Kaufmann said he believes that improved mental health likely played a part in the shift.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Less anxious and, especially, depressed students are linked with a smaller share identifying as trans, queer or bisexual,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The decline could also signal the fizzling out of a trend, Kaufmann added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fall of trans and queer seems most similar to the fading of a fashion or trend,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;It happened largely independently of shifts in political beliefs and social media use, though improved mental health played a role.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Marc Siegel, <em>Fox News<\/em> senior medical analyst, noted that the study is &#8220;very interesting,&#8221; but doesn\u2019t pinpoint the cause of the decline.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It brings up more questions than it answers,&#8221; the doctor, who was not involved in the survey, told <em>Fox News Digital<\/em>. &#8220;Could the change be due to a changing cultural climate? Less political pressure from parents and society? Could it be due to the idea that gender dysphoria resolves in many cases?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Siegel also wondered whether the attempt to &#8220;normalize&#8221; these choices and to &#8220;overcome stigmatization&#8221; could have been an overreaction in some cases, which is now being dialed back.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Or is the stigmatization now increasing again, making students reluctant to declare themselves as non-binary now?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;This needs to be studied further.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Alpert, a New York City psychotherapist, said this shift likely marks a &#8220;natural correction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For a while, we taught young people to over-interpret every feeling. Therapy culture told them that every discomfort needed a label or diagnosis,&#8221; Alpert, who also was not part of the analysis or the survey, told <em>Fox News Digital<\/em>. &#8220;For some, that label became \u2018nonbinary\u2019 \u2014 not identifying with a gender.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Alpert, these results don\u2019t necessarily mean that fewer people are identifying as transgender \u2014 &#8220;it\u2019s mostly about fewer identifying as nonbinary, which is something very different.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The awful illusion has finally been shattered, with increasing repercussions for the modern-day Mengeles who mutilated children.<\/p>\n<p>The obvious truth is that you can change your appearance and dress with varying degrees of success, and I don\u2019t oppose consenting, peaceful adults who\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/E7vq1qx2fL\">https:\/\/t.co\/E7vq1qx2fL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1978107793262473595?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 14, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Rather than rejecting who they are, Alpert said, young people may simply be tired of feeling pressured to define every emotion or difference with a new identity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So, in essence, it&#8217;s the performance that&#8217;s slowing down \u2014 at least in what this study showed,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A few years ago, identity was treated almost like a social badge. Now, perhaps young people are realizing they don\u2019t have to announce or label everything about themselves to be valid.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Alpert said he sees this same pattern in his own therapy practice.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Once people become more comfortable in who they are, they stop needing to define themselves so rigidly. To me, that\u2019s a sign of growing self-assurance, not intolerance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Fox News Digital<\/em> reached out to Kaufmann for additional comment.<\/p>\n<p><em>Article written by Melissa Rudy, a senior health editor and a member of the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. This article originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/health\/transgender-trend-sharply-declining-american-college-campuses-new-analysis-finds\">FoxNews.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The trans-identification trend among young people appears to be losing momentum. Recent data taken from college campuses shows a sharp decline in the number of Gen Zers identifying as transgender over the past three years. Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, conducted his own analysis of a large nonprobability-based survey&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":630,"featured_media":29594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Transgender &#039;Trend&#039; Sharply Declining on American College Campuses, New Analysis Finds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Latest data reveals surprising reversal in gender identity trends among undergraduates as doctors offer insights.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/10\/transgender-trend-sharply-declining-on-american-college-campuses-new-analysis-finds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transgender &#039;Trend&#039; 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