Man who lived as woman for eight years warns surprising teen sexuality data may not tell full story

A man who spent eight years identifying as a woman is casting doubt on reports of a dramatic decline in teenagers identifying as gay or bisexual, warning that social media and peer pressure may be influencing how young Americans describe their sexual orientation.

Walt Heyer, who detransitioned roughly 40 years ago and now serves as a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive video interview that he remains skeptical of the apparent shift, suggesting some teenagers may be reluctant to openly identify as gay or bisexual because of social pressures.

"I don't really believe that there's a big dramatic free fall," Heyer said, referring to recent reports about declining rates of gay and bisexual identification among some teenagers.

LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS REMOVES 'T' FROM LGBT ADVOCACY, SAYS 'RADICAL' TRANS ACTIVISTS ARE ERODING GAY SUPPORT "I think what's happening is that because of social media, there's a lot more influence on people who may not want to fall into that classification on a social media level and will withhold the fact that they are gay or bisexual, but really don't want to openly admit it," Heyer said.

The comments come after The Washington Post highlighted CDC data showing that the percentage of ninth-grade girls identifying as lesbian or bisexual fell from 30% in 2021 to 17% in 2025.

The share identifying as bisexual alone dropped from 26% to 13% over the same period.

PRISHA MOSELY: AS A DETRANSITIONER AND MOM, I KNOW WHAT GENDER IDEOLOGY STOLE FROM ME The percentage of boys identifying as gay or bisexual has remained largely unchanged over the past decade, while the share of high school girls identifying as lesbian or bisexual surged following the COVID-19 pandemic before beginning to decline, the Post reported.

Heyer, an author and co-author of multiple books including "Trans Life Survivors" and "Paper Genders" who has spent years working with people questioning their gender identities, argued that social dynamics among young people could complicate attempts to interpret the findings.

"I've had actual people in school saying that they're bullied into identifying one way, or they're bullying and bullied to not identify that way," he said.

BLUE STATE SCHOOL DISTRICT ACCUSED OF DEFYING SUPREME COURT, HIDING GENDER TRANSITIONS FROM PARENTS Heyer also said he believes peer and societal pressures are significant factors in kids choosing to identify with something else that is not their biological sex.

"What's interesting about that is that many kids are sort of coerced by their peers to say things one way or the other, so I've been very skeptical about what the kids are saying, whether they're gay or bisexual," Heyer said.

"I don't really believe that there's a big dramatic free fall.