Matthew Paris in The Times

Same as pp's, my youngest teen very firmly sees herself as bi, and has dated several girls, though her only serious and sexual relationship has been with a boy. Her friends are the same, proudly calling themselves queer despite most of them being in fairly steady heterosexual relationships.

I remember being about 12 or 13 and having huge, debilitating crushes on older girls at school, though by the time I was 15 I was attracted exclusively to males. I wonder if that earlier, more exploratory awakening of sexuality is taken as evidence of what's perceived to be a more interesting orientation by today's Generation Z?

I think he's taken some of the peer group idea from Abigail Shrier's book.

Another advantage for Parris is that he's not on Twitter and doesn't have the slightest interest in twitterstorms caused by his articles (so won't be pressured into changing tack).

Errol and Brave Mathew Parris was one of the founders of Stonewall UK - he is very distressed at the way it's turned out. Love him, he loves to start a row (not a reference to his Stonewall article, just generally). I knew about him when the Aids epidemic was becoming front and centre for the gay community. Did work with local LGB groups to try and help. Not gay myself but you'd be surprised how many straight women were stepping forward at that time, so Stonewalls campaign against women has struck me as a poor way to work. Then again, from my time doing that work, there were quite a few trans (drag) and gay people who really didn't like women. Never thought we'd have this outcome though

That's a really great interesting article. As the parent of a teen DD I see this a lot in her peer group too. There are lots of girls in a sort of tribe - maybe lesbian, certainly not interested in boys and quite wary of them (13/14 yr old boys are quite challenging I think) who do not describe themselves as straight. I think it's a smart move, it gives them room to be themselves and not feel in any way obligated to date boys. My DD herself is very much a fence sitter and is hugely relieved by understanding that she doesn't have to 'know' or decide yet. But also respects that some of her friends sexuality probably is certain, although nascent and haven't actually had any relationships yet.
I think one of the commentators on the Times article says that coming out now may be easier, but still not easy. From talking with my DD I reckon quite a lot of these girls are not finding it easy to talk to their parents.
My personal experience (all girls school) was that lesbianism was quite taboo. Being thought to be gay was tricky and you could be subtly bullied. Quite a lot of the girls I was at school with, still friends with, are now out, proud, married to women. Outside of school that stigma dropped away. But it must have been a difficult time for some of them.
I suspect quite a few of the girls identifying out of heterosexuality will form relationships with men as they get older. But as adolescents find the company of other females much easier - another thing I have observed, is actually how difficult some of them find asserting boundaries. Saying 'no' conflicts with 'be kind' - this is not a good thing for young people.

I am particularly struck by how every single one of the young women is gay or queer (never lesbian of course).

Lesbians and then trans men are at the lower end of Sheila Jeffreys' sex castes. Some discussion of the book:

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140410170437/gendertrender.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/exclusive-preview-gender-hurts-by-sheila-jeffreys/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20140410170437/gendertrender.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/exclusive-preview-gender-hurts-by-sheila-jeffreys/

I reckon part of the change in numbers is because older generations had to take sex more seriously, for a mix of good and bad reasons. Now it's more recreational, more opportunities to experiment. We've gone a long way fast from e.g. Michael Portillo losing his political career because he admitted to youthful experimentation which would be completely unimportant now. And that's a good thing.

Nothing wrong with whatever they do, it's just an observation.

Oh I have no problem that the statistics accurately report what young peole are saying. I'm just amused at the desire of the young to label themselves and others and having an aversion to applying vanilla labels to themselves.

I agree. Remember how many people were "bi-curious" in the 90s? Most have gone onto a life of solid heterosexuality. I also don't believe all these young people are genuinely gay or bisexual and this will continue in later life.

This is what he says about social contagion:

We are herd animals, much more captive to the herd than we like to acknowledge. ... Girls in girls’ boarding schools fall prey to school-wide waves of anorexia, self-harm, and perhaps gender-confusion too. I heard a friend say, “It was only when his best friend confessed his longing to go ‘trans’ that he found the same longing in himself; so thank God for his friend’s honesty!” And I thought, “Maybe. Or maybe he longed to be like his best friend.”

Oh I have no problem that the statistics accurately report what young peole are saying. I'm just amused at the desire of the young to label themselves and others and having an aversion to applying vanilla labels to themselves.

I completely believe the stats on number of bi and gay young people. I worry about how divided the sexes have become with the extreme pornification of young people and their role models: boys developing appetites driven by porn and girls being told they have to be Kim Kardashian-like goddesses. No wonder they are fleeing from each other.

I am a mature student and it is no joke when I say I can be the only ‘straight’ person in a seminar room of 20 undergraduates and a young 30s lecturer. I am particularly struck by how every single one of the young women is gay or queer (never lesbian of course).

I don't believe that nearly half of under 25s are gay or bisexual. (I'm not interested in the more exotic sexualities.)

I have dc aged 14 - 21. Every one of them and apparently their friends, too, describes themselves as either bi or gay. Not one describes themselves as straight - even those with girlfriends/boyfriends of the opposite sex.

Some of them, especially the younger ones, have never had a sexual partner of the same sex, yet ' just know' that they are bi or gay. Often they justify it by saying that they don't know that they won't be attracted to a person of the same sex as them, so how can they say that they aren't gay or bi?

Previous generations would simply have said "not yet interested".

'We shall have many more gay and bisexual people in the century ahead. That’s fine. And perhaps many more trans people too. Again, fine. But we should nail early the misconception that all we’re doing is respecting “what people really are”. By social pressure, classroom pressure, media pressure and, yes, through mere fashion, we are moulding soft clay, not discovering some great shard of internal granite children are born with. The younger the person, the softer the clay. It may not be a shirking but a shouldering of responsibility, to ask a child to wait.'

Absolutely this.

The generations were “Baby Boomers” (55-75); “Generation X” (41-54); “Millennials” (25-40); and “Generation Z” (under 25).
...
Brace yourself for the British result. Just over half (54 per cent) of the youngest generation said they were only attracted to the opposite sex. The older the respondents got, the less gay they declared themselves to be. The figure for Millennials was 60 per cent exclusively heterosexual; Generation X 76 per cent; and Baby Boomers 84 per cent.

I don't believe that nearly half of under 25s are gay or bisexual. (I'm not interested in the more exotic sexualities.)

I haven't seen this article, but I agree 100% with your quotation It may not be a shirking, but a shouldering of responsibility, to ask a child to wait .

When I was asked why I wouldn't be 'kind' to a (hypothetical) child who was upset by their gender, calling them by a different name and referring to them as if they were a different sex, while they tried out living as the opposite sex, my reply was "How is it kind to lie to a child and pretend that they can have what will never be available to them?"

Here you go

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/its-clear-our-sexuality-isnt-set-in-stone-8zp9ldf5h?shareToken=f8aa69c792893556326a4cbd39f0c55c

Was it Matthew Parris who wrote something a while back about stepping away from Stonewall or am I confused? He has touched on the issue before, I think.