Conventional wisdom for general population research suggests that nominal response categories be ordered by population prevalence. Current best practice in sexual orientation measurement represents an exception, with lesbian or gay recommended as the first response category, followed by the second, but most selected category, straight, that is, not lesbian or gay. Although prior research has shown that there can be differences in response distributions by response ordering, there has been a dearth of empirical work to investigate the potential of such context effects in sexual orientation measurement. To address this gap, we surveyed U.S. adults aged 18+ in 2022 using a nationally representative, probability-based household panel (n = 2,099) where panelists were asked “Which of the following best represents how you think of yourself?” with response categories lesbian or gay; straight, that is, not lesbian or gay; bisexual; something else; and I don’t know the answer. Panelists were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The control group was asked the standard ordering lesbian or gay followed by straight, that is, not lesbian or gay. The treatment group was asked straight, that is, not lesbian or gay followed by lesbian or gay. The order of the remaining responses was the same for both groups. Results do not show a significant relationship between response order and sexual orientation but suggest additional research with a larger sample would be useful. Compared to the lesbian/gay first group, the straight first group showed a significant decrease in proportion for don’t know responses. Differences in proportions for the remaining responses were not significant. Young adulthood was predictive of don’t know responses in both groups, indicating that don’t know responses may capture sexual fluidity, change, or uncertainty in addition to potential satisficing. Findings demonstrate that reordering response categories by population prevalence may improve data quality by decreasing item nonresponse.