More women are reporting they are experimenting with bisexuality, according to a national survey released last week by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

The data on Americans’ sexual habits were taken from the National Survey of Family Growth, which included more than 12,500 in-person interviews conducted from March 2002 to March 2003.

The increase in reported bisexuality is not an unfamiliar trend at Iowa State and throughout Central Iowa, said John Faughn, Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Services coordinator.

“Iowa State has seen a lot more incoming freshmen who are open with their sexual orientation,” Faughn said.

“This is not to say that there is an increase in homosexuals at the university, but there is an increase in people being open with it and being comfortable identifying themselves as homosexual, he said.”

One reason for this is that more who identify themselves as homosexual or bisexual are more comfortable with publicly declaring their sexual orientation than in the past, said Myke Selha, ISU alumnus and program director for the LGBT Community Center of Central Iowa.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities have now been more widely accepted throughout Iowa and the majority of the nation, Selha said.

A possible explanation for the increase in women experimenting with bisexuality is how homosexual issues are portrayed in the media, said Clifford Gentry, senior in interior design and facilitator for the ISU Gay/Bi Men’s Group.

“I think the numbers are increasing because people are much more open-minded than they used to be,” Gentry said.

“The media talks about gay issues in the evening news, there are gay issues portrayed on TV and in movies, and people just don’t have to hide who they are like they did in the past … the mood of the country is changing and is just part of a normal evolution.”

Another possible reason for this increase is the flexibility bisexuals enjoy, Gentry said.

“People won’t go from being identified as straight to gay; there is a lot of ‘gray area’ that exists with people who just want to experiment with someone of the same sex,” Gentry said.

Faughn and Gentry both said the increase in students’ ability to identify themselves as homosexual or bisexual is largely because of efforts made by the university. Gentry said the university has done a good job sponsoring events on campus to raise awareness of lesbian, gay and bisexual issues. They have also been successful in increasing the ‘ally population,’ of people who support LGBT causes, Gentry said.

Magriet “Jamie” Moran, facilitator for Fluidity, a transgender support group at Iowa State, said she agreed that the university is doing a good job of reaching out to the LGBT communities.

“This is a very sensitive and personal issue,” said Moran, freshman in meteorology. “Society as a whole has been more accepting of people that are not heterosexual. This is also true at Iowa State; in terms of general lesbian, gay, bi and transgender rights and issues on campus, the university is doing a great job.”

One suggestion to improve relations between lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students would be to make the coordinator of LGBTSS a full-time position, Faughn said.

Gentry said LGBT issues impact everyone at Iowa State.

“I think all people, to some extent, have a definite degree of bisexuality in them, there is no such thing as a 100 percent gay or straight person,” Gentry said.