So, like around 2000, I was an RA at a (slightly progressive) Christian college and I remember an RA meeting where all the RAs were sharing how many guys on their halls had confided that they thought they were maybe gay. The count had to be around a dozen for about 100 residents and that’s just the ones who shared it with someone. I think if things had been more open then, we would have had similar numbers.

It’s a weird sample though since it was a school that asked students to be abstinent until marriage, which feels very intrusive in retrospect. However, I think it creates this self-selecting thing for less sexual straight guys, and then closeted bi and gay guys. I mean, what red-blooded straight guys are going to want to go to a place where they don’t want you hooking up. So, you had all these sensitive virgins in a one place in their own heads about their sexuality. Lots of sensitive guys into art, writing poetry, wanting to stay up late and talk about feelings. Had to be sexually fluid guys mixed in.