Facts: Gay and Lesbian Youth in Schools

Published 08/28/02

  • Five to six percent of American students are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered (LGBT)1 — a conservative estimate means there are 2.25 to 2.7 million school-age LGBT youth.2
  • Recent studies show the average age for a gay or lesbian youth to come out is now 16-years-old — down from earlier studies showing the average age at 19 to 23 years old.3

Facing verbal and physical harassment:

A national survey of LGBT students conducted in 20034 found that, within the past year:

  • 77.9% heard remarks such as “faggot” or “dyke” frequently or often at school (similar studies have shown that the average high school student hears such epithets 25 times a day);
    • 18.8% heard similar remarks from faculty or school staff at least some of the time;
    • 82.9% reported that faculty or staff never or only sometimes intervened when they were present when such remarks were made.
  • 84% personally had been verbally harassed at school (that is, called names or threatened) because of their sexual orientation;
  • 65.3% had been sexually harassed (e.g., inappropriately touched or subjected to sexual comments);
  • 39.1% had been physically harassed (by being shoved or pushed) and 17% had been assaulted (by being punched, kicked or injured with a weapon) at school because of their sexual orientation;
  • 27.1% had been physically harassed because of their gender expression; 11.5% had been assaulted on that basis;
  • 64.3% felt unsafe in their school because of their sexual orientation;
  • LGBT youth of color and female students face abuse often compounded by racism and sexism:
    • 44.7% of LGBT students of color reported being verbally harassed because of both their sexual orientation and their race or ethnicity;
    • 50% of lesbian and bisexual young women reported being verbally harassed.

Other state-focused studies found that:

  • LGBT youth are 7 times more likely than other students to be threatened or injured with a weapon at school.5

Effects of harassment and violence:

  • Gay youth are 4 1/2 times more likely than non-gay peers to skip school because they feel unsafe;
  • 31% of gay students had missed at least an entire day of school in the past month because they felt unsafe based on their sexual orientation;
  • Nearly one-third of LGBT students drop out of high school to escape the violence, harassment, and isolation they face there - a dropout rate nearly three times the national average;
  • LGBT students are far more likely than their non-gay peers to run away from home, to experience academic problems, and to struggle with substance abuse, low self-esteem, and depression;
  • Gay youth are 4 times as likely than their non-gay counterparts to have attempted suicide.

1. See National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (2001), available at www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth.
2. Human Rights Watch, Hatred in the Hallways, supra note 6 at 24-25.
3. Catlin Ryan and Donna Futterman, "Lesbian & Gay Youth: Care and Counseling" Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews, vol. 8, no. 2, 1997, p. 207-374
4. Office of Public Policy of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network ("GLSEN"), National School Climate Survey (2003), available at www.glsen.org. This study surveyed a sample of 887 LGBT students from 48 states and the District of Columbia.
5. Studies released between 1995-97 by the Massachusetts Department of Education and the Vermont Department of Health.