Every year, it seems, the public is bombarded with a new poll declaring that the youngest voting generation (Gen Z) has a significant LGBTQ+ demographic. In 2021, Newsweek declared that almost 40% of Gen Z identified as LGBTQ+. In 2022, Gallup stated that 20% claimed this identification. And most recently, NBC News cited a 2023 survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) that concludes 28% of Gen Z identify as LGBTQ+.

Why the variance in results over the past several years? One explanation is that there are a significant number of people who, after college, where the social contagion is often most intense, tend to change their declared sexual orientation or gender identity back to heterosexual. Interestingly enough, Duke University published a study to back up this reversion. The study writers call this “sexual identity fluidity,” but, more likely, it is the wearing off of this social contagion.

Another interesting connection is that the Newsweek study (2021) and the PRRI survey (2023) cross-correlate the higher LGBTQ+ numbers with various religious associations. There is a distinct rise in anti-religious “Nones” that seem to be in line with the number of LGBTQ+ identifications.

According to a Pew Research study, one in four U.S. adults is either merely spiritual, agnostic, or atheistic. NPR, which ecstatically published these numbers, declared that nonreligious was most prevalent in American culture. This, however, isn’t true. If you combine the number of Catholics and Protestants alone, those numbers outpace the nonreligious pretty soundly. One can perhaps claim that Christians account for less than half of the religious makeup of the country, but declaring that the nonreligious have overtaken them is misleading.

Interestingly enough, both in the Pew Research study and in the PRRI study, it’s Millennials who are the bigger driver of this nonreligious trend (though this could change once the younger Gen Zers reach adulthood). While this is not a perfect correlation, as there are gender-confused people who are religious and attend church, there is a growing number of poll respondents who link the two trends.

Is there a worldview/religious correlation that might explain a link between LGBTQ+ identity and nonreligious association? Perhaps. Particularly when an LGBTQ+ person strongly adheres to the Gender Marxism branch of the LGBTQ+ wing. It can be said that once a person stumbles into the deeper and darker sides of sexual idolatry — the belief that sexual orientation, gender identity, and sexual gratification at all moral costs are the paramount parts of one’s existence — they have essentially declared themselves god and everyone else’s sense of right and wrong is just “their bigoted point of view.”

Most Americans still believe that there is an external set of laws that make up morality. Those laws are “endowed by the Creator,” as our Founders put it. However, those who have abandoned that perspective tend to follow a morally relativistic perspective and are, therefore, more likely to not be religious.

The moral relativism of this ilk shows up again and again in modern culture as our younger generations search for wisdom in the cacophony of warring worldviews. A recent example comes in the form of Allyn Walker, a former associate professor at Old Dominion University. Walker was put on administrative leave in the fall of 2021 and eventually resigned for trying to normalize the term “Minor Attracted Persons” (i.e. MAPs) as a less judgmental term for “non-offending” pedophiles.

Walker recently published a paper calling people who disagree with his worldview “transphobic” and inciting “moral panic.” Walker, whose worldview puts the sexual idolater (a pedophile who is “non-offending”) over the protection of the most vulnerable in our society (by advocating that MAPs consume child porn instead of acting out their perverted desires on actual victims), is displaying moral relativism. Walker wants to normalize a backward and morally repugnant sexual deviation in flagrant disregard for the dignity of the victims and the rest of society at large. Walker’s perspective, in this case, is more important than religious teachings or the justified moral outrage of the public.

One thing that can for certain be gleaned from these differing polls is that try as pollsters might, the information they garner isn’t always an accurate picture, and it certainly isn’t a good predictor of future trends. There is so much nuance even within the various subgroups that though they may make a sensational headline for a day, the long-term outlook isn’t as dire as some news outlets would have the public believe.