By Anton Eggendorfer
According to the New York Post almost 40% of students at Brown University are identifying as LGBTQ+ this year, almost doubling the numbers from 2010. [1] This clearly throws a monkey wrench into the “born this way” theory which states that most sexual orientation or identity is defined from birth and that people just react to that already existing underlying fact.
This rapid increase in numbers suggests the notion that some sort of social contagion is at work here. The idea that peer pressure or influence might turn people LGBTQ+ has been strongly criticized by academics, even attacking those colleagues who taught at Brown and got fired for opposing the belief that seems now mandated within the sector. “For example, the head of an academic journal that published a paper [2] that supported the theory of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria [3] faced a cancellation attempt, along with the Northwestern University professor who wrote the paper. Coincidentally, Dr. Lisa Littman, who popularized the idea of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, once taught at Brown University before being forced out over the controversy.” [4] Littmann and others argue that people identifying as bisexual rise in far bigger numbers than those who actually act in this manner, suggesting that some might want to be in the in-crowd rather than really being bisexuals or that temporary attraction might be confused with permanent attraction. Also campus politics and favorable views on colleagues with LGBTQ+ identities might play a role in greatly increasing numbers, far surpassing the national average. [5]
If, what the numbers suggest is truly happening, then there might be a situation developing within the sector, where young people might be pushed in a direction that might cause them problems down the road, from putting themselves in an irreversible dependency on hormonal treatment, multiple surgeries and even psychological treatment that wouldn’t be necessary otherwise. There is also increasing pressure on parents critical of LGBTQ+ lifestyles to further their child’s development in this direction. Growing up is hard to do might ring increasingly true within the American sector.
[1] https://nypost.com/2023/07/10/brown-university-students-identifying-as-lgbtq-doubled-in-10-years-to-nearly-40-percent/
[2] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-023-02576-9
[3] The theory that gender dysphoria might suddenly appear in someone who has been unaffected since birth
[4] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/forty-percent-of-brown-
university-students-say-they-are-lgbt-suggesting-social-contagion
[5} ibid.
