97% of high school students report regularly hearing homophobic remarks from the mouths of their peers.
Studies on youth suicide consistently find that lesbian and gay adolescents are 2 to 5 times more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to attempts or commit suicide.
80% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth reported verbal abuse in a 14 city study, 44% reported threats of attack, 33% reported objects thrown at them and 30% reported being chased or followed.
Of 4,159 Massachusetts high school students, 31.2% of those who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual were threatened or injured with a weapon at school in the past year--- compared to 6.9% of their heterosexual peers.
34% of Seattle students identifying as LGBTQ youth were targets of anti-gay harassment and violence at school, or to and from. Compare that to 6% of heteresexual kids.
In Michigan, 28% of school personnel surveyed determined their school environment emotionally unsafe for sexual minority youth.
To be called LESBIAN OR GAY was described as the most deeply humiliating form of harassment that youth in a National survey claimed to experience.
Service providers estimate that gay, lesbian and bisexual youth make up 20-40% of homeless youth in urban areas.
In a study of 4,159 Massachusetts high school students, 46% who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual had attempted suicide in the past year compared to 8.8% of their peers, and 23.5% required medical attention as a result of a suicide attempt compared to 3.3% of their peers. The same study found 18.4% of the gay, lesbian and bisexual students had been in a physical fight resulting in treatment by a doctor or nurse compared to 4% of their peers, and 22.2% skipped school in the past month because they felt unsafe en route to or at school, compared to 4.2% of their peers.
Adapted from:
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays,www.pflag.org
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