A study is finding the percentage of young people on college campuses who are identifying as transgender is falling off a cliff.
After increasing over the last decade and a half, a study from the Centre for Heterodox Social Science found that, starting in 2023, the percentage of American college students who identify as transgender or queer has fallen almost in half, from almost 7 percent to less than four percent.
Peter Labarbera of the Center for Morality and AmericansForTruth.com says by 2023 the rise in trans identification was because of what he calls a social contagion. It was cool to say you’re trans. But then reality set in.
“The awful reality of young people, very young people who, whose bodies were destroyed in the pursuit of this fantasy of becoming the opposite sex,” Labarbera said.
He says that sometime around 2023 the movement crossed some invisible line, and the public started refusing to play along.
“It’s just a road too far for most Americans. And so there was such a tremendous pushback against the trans agenda.”
“The Charlie Kirk phenomenon of being out on campus debating the trans issue” played a big role in the move back to reality,” Labarbera said.
And the revival stirring in younger generations, especially young men, toward Christian faith is another factor. Church attendance and personal faith commitments are rising again among Gen Z, after years of decline. Where the sexual revolution promised identity and freedom, God offers a deeper narrative of belonging, purpose, and redemption. As more young hearts encounter that narrative, the flimsier identities offered by transient social trends lose their hold.
Also, it is likely many youth have “experimented” with gender identities, only to feel unmoored, hollow, or misunderstood. For years the dominant narrative was that identifying as trans was bold, liberating, heroic. But some young people who tried it now speak of emptiness, relational losses, and identity confusion.
Detransitioners — those who once affirmed a trans identity but later returned to their birth sex or abandoned the identity paradigm altogether — are no longer invisible outliers. Their testimonies are painful, sobering, and instructive. As more detransitioners speak publicly, they challenge the assumption that transition is always the right answer — and they invite younger people to pause and reflect.
Meanwhile, citizens, parents, and faith communities are pushing back against school “transition closets,” distribution of chest binders or tuck-gear, and covert gender education. The pressure to acquiesce is being met by equal pressure to question, resist, and reclaim parental authority. Although the battle is far from over, institutions that once surged ahead unopposed now see resistance.
This turning tide is not merely a cultural footnote — it’s an opening for strategic and faithful engagement:
Detransitioners deserve compassion, not derision. The church especially must develop ministries of rest, restoration, and belonging to those who were deceived in the name of affirmation.
As institutions push clandestine policies (transition closets, concealment from parents, provision of binders or gender tools), the church and pro-family groups must strengthen laws, activism, and school accountability.
The deeper battle remains the war for souls. We can’t merely win identity politics; we must win hearts to Christ, so the gospel reshapes the contour of all identity.
Make no mistake: the gender revolution did not disappear overnight. Many schools still administer transition closets, hide information from parents, distribute binders or tuck underwear, and subtly encourage gender fluidity behind closed doors. The institutional momentum has not been vanquished — only checked.
But what we are witnessing is a crack in the ideological dam. Young people are returning from the wilderness of identity experimentation, disillusioned, hurting, and seeking anchors. The Christian community now has an opportunity to receive them with grace, proclaim a deeper identity in Christ, and fortify the next generation with truth and love.
If we pray, study Scripture, engage culture, and build resilient families, this moment can become a hinge in history — a turning point, not just in identity statistics, but in the trajectory of a generation. Let us not squander it.