Gay, bisexual, and non-binary: When young people question heterosexuality

Sexual minorities are more visible and more socially recognized in France today. The Envie survey*, led at INED under the direction of Marie Bergström, shows a sharp increase in the number of young people identifying as gay or bisexual. Today, 1 in 5 women (19%) and 1 in 12 men (8%) aged 18–29 do not identify as heterosexual. In an article published in the bulletin Population & Societies, written by Tania Lejbowicz, Wilfried Rault, and Mathieu Trachman, contributes to furthering our understanding of this major trend. Which young people does the trend concern? Does the way they identify involve specific sexual journeys? What are the relationships between sexual minorities and gender minorities? Looking beyond the extension of the realm of sexual possibilities, young people are calling into question the heterosexual norm and, more generally, the gender norms that structure sexuality. 

This change is being driven mainly by women, the number of whom identifying as heterosexual has fallen substantially. Tania Lejbowicz, Wilfried Rault, Mathieu Trachman, and the other authors contributing to Envie interpret this phenomenon in the light of contemporary challenges to gender relations, with the #MeToo movement, in addition to condemning sexual violence, having called into question the heterosexual norm. In parallel, a large proportion of young people say that in their life course they have been attracted to both sexes: 37% of women and 18% of men in 2023.

Non-binary people, accounting for 1.7% of people aged 18–29, stand apart through their strong pansexual identification (38.5% of non-binary individuals) and bisexual identification (21.5%), and through their stronger distance from heterosexuality, with only 14.7% identifying as such. This group highlights a distancing from binary gender categories that is reflected in their sexual journey.

While these changes are being driven by young generations, the question is whether they will take lasting root in society. Several developments point to a deep-seated change, such as the scale of the increase in non-heterosexual identifications between 2015 and 2023 and their distribution among different population categories. This can be seen as a generational issue, as these young people belong to cohorts having been teenagers during the rise of the #MeToo movement in France, and/or as an “age” issue, since we still do not know if young individuals will identify differently as they grow older.

Source:Gay, bisexual, and non-binary: When young people question heterosexuality, Tania Lejbowicz, Wilfried Rault, Mathieu Trachman, l’équipe Envie (The ENVIE team)

Online: May 2025