Being in this demographic (I graduated high school in 1996), right away this reminded me of a friend of mine who was so not gay but claimed bisexuality in this time period. I don't think it was in any way a prank, I just think there was a certain trendiness about it. Looking back, a sort of aggressive tolerance of GLBTs feels like a defining factor for my generation from the kids who came up in the late 80s.

After my generation it just seems to be taken for granted a bit more, and thus uninteresting to youth culture. I realize this is just anecdotal, but suffice it to say that this result does not surprise me in the least and I think researchers are bit out of their depth when they try to ascribe logic to the phenomenon ex post facto. The "data" they have does not reflect the dominant cultural psychology of the time which is paramount in any youth study.