Nearly 40 percent of Brown University students say they “do not identify as straight,” according to a report from the school’s student newspaper.
The Brown Daily Herald reported that 38 percent of students do not identify as straight and identify as homosexual, bisexual, queer, pansexual, or other. This is five times over the national rate. In 2010, 14 percent of respondents in the school’s poll said they were not straight (via The Brown Daily Herald):
Since Fall 2010, Brown’s LGBTQ+ population has expanded considerably. The gay or lesbian population has increased by 26% and the percentage of students identifying as bisexual has increased by 232%. Students identifying as other sexual orientations within the LGBTQ+ community have increased by 793%.
Since 2010, the range of LGBTQ+ identifications students are able to self-report on the Herald’s semesterly poll has expanded. In Spring 2022, The Herald expanded its options for describing sexual orientation to better represent the Brown community, including “Queer,” “Pansexual,” “Asexual” and “Questioning/Unsure” as options.
Notably, of those who self-identified as LGBTQ+, only 22.9% of students described themselves as gay or lesbian in the Herald Spring 2023 poll, down from 46% in Fall 2010. Bisexual was the most common answer among LGBTQ+ respondents with 53.7% of LGBTQ+ responses.
Students were also more likely to identify with a more diverse range of sexual orientations besides homosexual and bisexual in recent years.
“Queer people haven’t been able to be open in their identifications for that long,” a student named Josephine Kovecses told the outlet. “So it’s exciting that the numbers are growing and that queer people are able to be open in particular at Brown.”
According to the New York Post, in fall 2022, Brown had an undergraduate enrollment of 7,222 students and 3,515 in its graduate and medical programs.
Last year, a study conducted by the UCLA’s Williams Institute claims that 0.5 percent of all American adults, 1.3 million people, and about 300,000 youth 13 to 17 years old identify as transgender. This means the individual “identifies” with a different gender than the sex they were assigned at birth, which Townhall covered.
In addition, irreversible, experimental transgender surgeries and treatments are being sought after by children as young as age 11, which Townhall also reported.
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