Right-Wingers Celebrate Flawed Study Claiming a "Decline" in Trans Identity

Right-wing media outlets worked themselves into a froth this week over a new report claiming that bisexual, transgender, and queer identities are on the decline among college students. One problem: the report’s basic data analysis is so flawed that one data scientist called it “dead on arrival.”

The report, titled “The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity Among Young Americans,” was authored by Eric Kaufmann, a professor and founding director of the University of Buckingham’s Center for Heterodox Social Science. Kaufmann is a notorious “anti-woke” academic, once known for denouncing “anti-white ideology” before turning his attention to LGBTQ+ identity and founding the Center in 2024 to oppose progressivism in higher education. Other faculty at the Center include James Esses, a former psychotherapy student and advocate for “exploratory” talk therapy for trans youth — a euphemism for conversion therapy.