Engagement in youth activism has been linked to both positive and negative wellbeing. Drawing on ... more Engagement in youth activism has been linked to both positive and negative wellbeing. Drawing on survey results from a sample of 636 youth participants in the ACLU Advocacy Institute, this study finds that although youth generally report greater benefits from their activism than costs, the costs are significantly related to worse mental health, physical health, and flourishing, while benefits are positively associated with flourishing only. A sense of belonging to an activist community, however, emerges as a significant protective factor for mental health, physical health, and flourishing. Focus group respondents explain how peer support and a sense of belonging act as salves to burnout, the most common cost that youth activists in this sample report experiencing. They also identify three main sources of burnout: backlash in response to their efforts; pressure to be the savior generation; and the slow progress of change. This study advances understanding of the complex relationship ...
This report examines the online experiences of LGBT students in 6-12th grade. LGBT youth experien... more This report examines the online experiences of LGBT students in 6-12th grade. LGBT youth experience nearly three times as much bullying and harassment online as non-LGBT youth, but also find greater peer support, access to health information and opportunities to be civically engaged
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), 2018
GLSEN is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all stu... more GLSEN is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established in 1990, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community. For more information on our educator resources, research, public policy agenda, student leadership programs, or development initiatives, visit www.glsen.org. Graphic design: Adam Fredericks Quotes throughout are from students' responses to open-ended questions in the survey. Electronic versions of this report and all other GLSEN research reports are available at www.glsen.org/research. • Adopting and implementing comprehensive bullying/harassment policies that specifically enumerate sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in individual schools and districts, with clear and effective systems for reporting and addressing incidents that students experience. Taken together, such measures can move us toward a future in which all students have the opportunity to learn and succeed in school, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. * Throughout this report we use LGBTQ when referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students and the LGBTQ population in general. Although prior installments of the National School Climate Survey have used LGBT, we have explicitly added queer in this installment as a result of the increase in an observed self-identification of students as queer over time. However, there are instances when referring to particular survey items that we will use LGBT to reflect how the question was asked in the survey.
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal f... more The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal funds directed at child abuse implement mandated reporting laws. As a result, all states have adopted legislation requiring teachers and other professionals who deal with children to report suspicions of child abuse. The federal mandate for such reporting laws assumes that teachers will have the capability to fulfill their role as mandated reporters. However, prior research suggests that educators do not always report their suspicions of child abuse to child protective services. Using survey data from a sample of teachers trained by the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, this study investigated whether teachers are currently prepared for their role as mandated reporters. Prior research had found that mandated reporters vary in the level to which they comply with reporting policies. This study assessed the potential factors accounting for variations in teachers’ rep...
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), 2014
GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) is the leading national education organizat... more GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established in 1990, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community. For more information on our educator resources, research, public policy agenda, student leadership programs, or development initiatives, visit www.glsen.org.
In this introduction to the special issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly on the theme “mak... more In this introduction to the special issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly on the theme “making transgender count,” the authors delineate the senses in which trans people can count. On one hand, one makes trans count (in the sense of having its importance recognized) by counting it (making it visible through quantification). On the other hand, one makes (i.e., compels) trans count by forcing atypical configurations of identity into categories into which they do not quite fit—the proverbial square peg in a round hole. In this way, the imperative to be counted becomes another kind of normativizing violence that trans subjects can encounter and hence another problematic to be critically interrogated by the field of transgender studies. The tensions among what to count, whom to count, how to count, why to count, or whether to count or be counted at all are explored in this issue’s articles. What makes the notion of trans* such a fecund point of departure for work in transgender studies is that the definitional lines of the concept are moving targets. That very instability frustrates the project of fixing embodied identities in time and space—a requisite operation for the potentially life-enhancing project of counting trans populations and better addressing their needs as well as for the necropolitical project of selecting certain members of the population for categorical exclusion as dysgenic. The essays in this issue do not resolve the tension between efforts to refine techniques of governmental reason and strategies of resistance, between attempts to sedentarize trans identities and movements that refuse such settling, or between universalizing imperatives to classify and local demands to reject incorporation into a global schematics of gender difference organized by male/female, man/woman, cis-/trans-, trans-/homo-, or white/color dichotomies. Some attempt to do both, while all ultimately fall on one side or the other of various problematics. Our goal in curating this issue has been less to gather a collection of articles that definitively settle these vexed questions than to stage a conversation in which the stakes of the game are made visible.
Bullying and substance use represent serious public health issues facing adolescents in the U.S. ... more Bullying and substance use represent serious public health issues facing adolescents in the U.S. Few large-sample national studies have examined differences in these indicators by gender identity. The Teen Health and Technology Study (N=5,542) sampled adolescents 13-18 years-old online. Weighted multivariable logistic regression models investigated disparities in substance use and tested a gender minority social stress hypothesis, comparing gender minority youth (i.e., who are transgender/gender nonconforming and have a gender different from their sex assigned at birth) and cisgender (i.e., whose gender identity or expression matches one's sex assigned at birth). Overall, 11.5% of youth self-identified as gender minority. Gender minority youth had increased odds of past-12 month alcohol use, marijuana use, and non-marijuana illicit drug use. Gender minority youth disproportionately experienced bullying and harassment in the past 12 months, and this victimization was associated with increased odds of all substance use indicators. Bullying mediated the elevated odds of substance use for gender minority youth compared to cisgender adolescents. Findings support the use of gender minority stress perspectives in designing early interventions aimed at addressing the negative health sequelae of bullying and harassment.
This study examines how United States (US) teachers’ experiences and beliefs may be predictive of... more This study examines how United States (US) teachers’ experiences and beliefs may be predictive of their intervention in anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) bullying and harassment using a US national sample of teachers (N = 726) who completed an online survey. Results from regression analysis indicated that knowing LGBT people, awareness of general bullying and harassment, awareness of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment, and self-efficacy related to intervention in homophobic remarks were significant predictors of teachers’ frequency of intervention in homophobic remarks. Teachers’ sense of obligation to ensure safe schools for LGBT youth was not predictive of intervention. Implications for teacher education include: providing opportunities for exposure to LGBT people; raising awareness of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment; and building teachers’ skills to intervene in anti-LGBT behaviors.
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal f... more The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal funds directed at child abuse implement mandated reporting laws. As a result, all states have adopted legislation requiring teachers and other professionals who deal with children to report suspicions of child abuse. The federal mandate for such reporting laws assumes that teachers will have the capability to fulfill their role as mandated reporters. However, prior research suggests that educators do not always report their suspicions of child abuse to child protective services. Using survey data from a sample of teachers trained by the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, this study investigated whether teachers are currently prepared for their role as mandated reporters. Prior research had found that mandated reporters vary in the level to which they comply with reporting policies. This study assessed the potential factors accounting for variations in teachers ’ re...
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal f... more The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal funds directed at child abuse implement mandated reporting laws. As a result, all states have adopted legislation requiring teachers and other professionals who deal with children to report suspicions of child abuse. The federal mandate for such reporting laws assumes that teachers will have the capability to fulfill their role as mandated reporters. However, prior research suggests that educators do not always report their suspicions of child abuse to child protective services. Using survey data from a sample of teachers trained by the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, this study investigated whether teachers are currently prepared for their role as mandated reporters. Prior research had found that mandated reporters vary in the level to which they comply with reporting policies. This study assessed the potential factors accounting for variations in teachers’ rep...
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network is the leading national education organization fo... more The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. Established nationally in 1995, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.
GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) is the leading national education organizat... more GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established in 1990, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community. For more information on our educator resources, research, public policy agenda, student leadership programs, or development initiatives, visit www.glsen.org. Inside photography: p. xxi-Seth Sawyers, under Creative Commons license; p. 45-Sarah Mazak, p. 83-Conrad Ventur Graphic design: Adam Fredericks Quotes throughout are from students' responses to open-ended questions in the survey. Electronic versions of this report and all other GLSEN research reports are available at www.glsen.org/research. xiii METHODS GLSEN used two methods to obtain a representative national sample of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth to participate in a survey: 1) outreach through national, regional, and local organizations that provide services to or advocate on behalf of LGBT youth, and 2) targeted advertising on the social networking site Facebook. For the first method, we asked organizations to direct youth to the National School Climate Survey, which was available on GLSEN's website, through their organizations' emails, listservs, websites, and social networking sites. Additionally, a paper version of the survey was made available to local community groups/organizations with limited capacity to access the Internet. To ensure representation of transgender youth, youth of color, and youth in rural communities, we made special efforts to notify groups and organizations that work predominantly with these populations. For the second method, we posted advertisements for the survey on Facebook, targeting all users between 13 and 18 years of age who gave some indication on their profile that they were lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The final sample consisted of a total of 8,584 students between the ages of 13 and 20. Students were from all 50 states and the District of Columbia and from 3,224 unique school districts. About two thirds of the sample (67.9%) was White, about half (49.6%) was female, and over half identified as gay or lesbian (61.3%). Students were in grades 6 to 12, with the largest numbers in grades 10 and 11. KEY fINDINGS Problem: Hostile School Climate Schools nationwide are hostile environments for a distressing number of LGBT students, the overwhelming majority of whom hear homophobic remarks and experience harassment or assault at school because of their sexual orientation or gender expression. Biased Remarks at School • 84.9% of students heard "gay" used in a negative way (e.g., "that's so gay") frequently or often at school, and 91.4% reported that they felt distressed because of this language. * Participants who selected more than one category were coded as "Multiracial," with the exception of participants who selected "hispanic or Latino" or "Middle Eastern or Arab American." **"Female" includes participants who selected only female as their gender, and "Male" includes participants who selected only male. The category "Transgender" includes participants who selected transgender, male-to-female, or female-to-male as their gender, including those who selected more than one of these categories. Participants who selected both male and female were categorized as "other Gender."
GLSEN is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all stu... more GLSEN is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established in 1990, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community. For more information on our educator resources, research, public policy agenda, student leadership programs, or development initiatives, visit www.glsen.org. Graphic design: Adam Fredericks Quotes throughout are from students' responses to open-ended questions in the survey. Electronic versions of this report and all other GLSEN research reports are available at www.glsen.org/research. • Adopting and implementing comprehensive bullying/harassment policies that specifically enumerate sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in individual schools and districts, with clear and effective systems for reporting and addressing incidents that students experience. Taken together, such measures can move us toward a future in which all students have the opportunity to learn and succeed in school, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. * Throughout this report we use LGBTQ when referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students and the LGBTQ population in general. Although prior installments of the National School Climate Survey have used LGBT, we have explicitly added queer in this installment as a result of the increase in an observed self-identification of students as queer over time. However, there are instances when referring to particular survey items that we will use LGBT to reflect how the question was asked in the survey.
Engagement in youth activism has been linked to both positive and negative wellbeing. Drawing on ... more Engagement in youth activism has been linked to both positive and negative wellbeing. Drawing on survey results from a sample of 636 youth participants in the ACLU Advocacy Institute, this study finds that although youth generally report greater benefits from their activism than costs, the costs are significantly related to worse mental health, physical health, and flourishing, while benefits are positively associated with flourishing only. A sense of belonging to an activist community, however, emerges as a significant protective factor for mental health, physical health, and flourishing. Focus group respondents explain how peer support and a sense of belonging act as salves to burnout, the most common cost that youth activists in this sample report experiencing. They also identify three main sources of burnout: backlash in response to their efforts; pressure to be the savior generation; and the slow progress of change. This study advances understanding of the complex relationship ...
This report examines the online experiences of LGBT students in 6-12th grade. LGBT youth experien... more This report examines the online experiences of LGBT students in 6-12th grade. LGBT youth experience nearly three times as much bullying and harassment online as non-LGBT youth, but also find greater peer support, access to health information and opportunities to be civically engaged
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), 2018
GLSEN is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all stu... more GLSEN is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established in 1990, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community. For more information on our educator resources, research, public policy agenda, student leadership programs, or development initiatives, visit www.glsen.org. Graphic design: Adam Fredericks Quotes throughout are from students' responses to open-ended questions in the survey. Electronic versions of this report and all other GLSEN research reports are available at www.glsen.org/research. • Adopting and implementing comprehensive bullying/harassment policies that specifically enumerate sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in individual schools and districts, with clear and effective systems for reporting and addressing incidents that students experience. Taken together, such measures can move us toward a future in which all students have the opportunity to learn and succeed in school, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. * Throughout this report we use LGBTQ when referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students and the LGBTQ population in general. Although prior installments of the National School Climate Survey have used LGBT, we have explicitly added queer in this installment as a result of the increase in an observed self-identification of students as queer over time. However, there are instances when referring to particular survey items that we will use LGBT to reflect how the question was asked in the survey.
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal f... more The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal funds directed at child abuse implement mandated reporting laws. As a result, all states have adopted legislation requiring teachers and other professionals who deal with children to report suspicions of child abuse. The federal mandate for such reporting laws assumes that teachers will have the capability to fulfill their role as mandated reporters. However, prior research suggests that educators do not always report their suspicions of child abuse to child protective services. Using survey data from a sample of teachers trained by the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, this study investigated whether teachers are currently prepared for their role as mandated reporters. Prior research had found that mandated reporters vary in the level to which they comply with reporting policies. This study assessed the potential factors accounting for variations in teachers’ rep...
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), 2014
GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) is the leading national education organizat... more GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established in 1990, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community. For more information on our educator resources, research, public policy agenda, student leadership programs, or development initiatives, visit www.glsen.org.
In this introduction to the special issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly on the theme “mak... more In this introduction to the special issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly on the theme “making transgender count,” the authors delineate the senses in which trans people can count. On one hand, one makes trans count (in the sense of having its importance recognized) by counting it (making it visible through quantification). On the other hand, one makes (i.e., compels) trans count by forcing atypical configurations of identity into categories into which they do not quite fit—the proverbial square peg in a round hole. In this way, the imperative to be counted becomes another kind of normativizing violence that trans subjects can encounter and hence another problematic to be critically interrogated by the field of transgender studies. The tensions among what to count, whom to count, how to count, why to count, or whether to count or be counted at all are explored in this issue’s articles. What makes the notion of trans* such a fecund point of departure for work in transgender studies is that the definitional lines of the concept are moving targets. That very instability frustrates the project of fixing embodied identities in time and space—a requisite operation for the potentially life-enhancing project of counting trans populations and better addressing their needs as well as for the necropolitical project of selecting certain members of the population for categorical exclusion as dysgenic. The essays in this issue do not resolve the tension between efforts to refine techniques of governmental reason and strategies of resistance, between attempts to sedentarize trans identities and movements that refuse such settling, or between universalizing imperatives to classify and local demands to reject incorporation into a global schematics of gender difference organized by male/female, man/woman, cis-/trans-, trans-/homo-, or white/color dichotomies. Some attempt to do both, while all ultimately fall on one side or the other of various problematics. Our goal in curating this issue has been less to gather a collection of articles that definitively settle these vexed questions than to stage a conversation in which the stakes of the game are made visible.
Bullying and substance use represent serious public health issues facing adolescents in the U.S. ... more Bullying and substance use represent serious public health issues facing adolescents in the U.S. Few large-sample national studies have examined differences in these indicators by gender identity. The Teen Health and Technology Study (N=5,542) sampled adolescents 13-18 years-old online. Weighted multivariable logistic regression models investigated disparities in substance use and tested a gender minority social stress hypothesis, comparing gender minority youth (i.e., who are transgender/gender nonconforming and have a gender different from their sex assigned at birth) and cisgender (i.e., whose gender identity or expression matches one's sex assigned at birth). Overall, 11.5% of youth self-identified as gender minority. Gender minority youth had increased odds of past-12 month alcohol use, marijuana use, and non-marijuana illicit drug use. Gender minority youth disproportionately experienced bullying and harassment in the past 12 months, and this victimization was associated with increased odds of all substance use indicators. Bullying mediated the elevated odds of substance use for gender minority youth compared to cisgender adolescents. Findings support the use of gender minority stress perspectives in designing early interventions aimed at addressing the negative health sequelae of bullying and harassment.
This study examines how United States (US) teachers’ experiences and beliefs may be predictive of... more This study examines how United States (US) teachers’ experiences and beliefs may be predictive of their intervention in anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) bullying and harassment using a US national sample of teachers (N = 726) who completed an online survey. Results from regression analysis indicated that knowing LGBT people, awareness of general bullying and harassment, awareness of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment, and self-efficacy related to intervention in homophobic remarks were significant predictors of teachers’ frequency of intervention in homophobic remarks. Teachers’ sense of obligation to ensure safe schools for LGBT youth was not predictive of intervention. Implications for teacher education include: providing opportunities for exposure to LGBT people; raising awareness of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment; and building teachers’ skills to intervene in anti-LGBT behaviors.
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal f... more The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal funds directed at child abuse implement mandated reporting laws. As a result, all states have adopted legislation requiring teachers and other professionals who deal with children to report suspicions of child abuse. The federal mandate for such reporting laws assumes that teachers will have the capability to fulfill their role as mandated reporters. However, prior research suggests that educators do not always report their suspicions of child abuse to child protective services. Using survey data from a sample of teachers trained by the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, this study investigated whether teachers are currently prepared for their role as mandated reporters. Prior research had found that mandated reporters vary in the level to which they comply with reporting policies. This study assessed the potential factors accounting for variations in teachers ’ re...
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal f... more The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal funds directed at child abuse implement mandated reporting laws. As a result, all states have adopted legislation requiring teachers and other professionals who deal with children to report suspicions of child abuse. The federal mandate for such reporting laws assumes that teachers will have the capability to fulfill their role as mandated reporters. However, prior research suggests that educators do not always report their suspicions of child abuse to child protective services. Using survey data from a sample of teachers trained by the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, this study investigated whether teachers are currently prepared for their role as mandated reporters. Prior research had found that mandated reporters vary in the level to which they comply with reporting policies. This study assessed the potential factors accounting for variations in teachers’ rep...
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network is the leading national education organization fo... more The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. Established nationally in 1995, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.
GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) is the leading national education organizat... more GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established in 1990, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community. For more information on our educator resources, research, public policy agenda, student leadership programs, or development initiatives, visit www.glsen.org. Inside photography: p. xxi-Seth Sawyers, under Creative Commons license; p. 45-Sarah Mazak, p. 83-Conrad Ventur Graphic design: Adam Fredericks Quotes throughout are from students' responses to open-ended questions in the survey. Electronic versions of this report and all other GLSEN research reports are available at www.glsen.org/research. xiii METHODS GLSEN used two methods to obtain a representative national sample of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth to participate in a survey: 1) outreach through national, regional, and local organizations that provide services to or advocate on behalf of LGBT youth, and 2) targeted advertising on the social networking site Facebook. For the first method, we asked organizations to direct youth to the National School Climate Survey, which was available on GLSEN's website, through their organizations' emails, listservs, websites, and social networking sites. Additionally, a paper version of the survey was made available to local community groups/organizations with limited capacity to access the Internet. To ensure representation of transgender youth, youth of color, and youth in rural communities, we made special efforts to notify groups and organizations that work predominantly with these populations. For the second method, we posted advertisements for the survey on Facebook, targeting all users between 13 and 18 years of age who gave some indication on their profile that they were lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The final sample consisted of a total of 8,584 students between the ages of 13 and 20. Students were from all 50 states and the District of Columbia and from 3,224 unique school districts. About two thirds of the sample (67.9%) was White, about half (49.6%) was female, and over half identified as gay or lesbian (61.3%). Students were in grades 6 to 12, with the largest numbers in grades 10 and 11. KEY fINDINGS Problem: Hostile School Climate Schools nationwide are hostile environments for a distressing number of LGBT students, the overwhelming majority of whom hear homophobic remarks and experience harassment or assault at school because of their sexual orientation or gender expression. Biased Remarks at School • 84.9% of students heard "gay" used in a negative way (e.g., "that's so gay") frequently or often at school, and 91.4% reported that they felt distressed because of this language. * Participants who selected more than one category were coded as "Multiracial," with the exception of participants who selected "hispanic or Latino" or "Middle Eastern or Arab American." **"Female" includes participants who selected only female as their gender, and "Male" includes participants who selected only male. The category "Transgender" includes participants who selected transgender, male-to-female, or female-to-male as their gender, including those who selected more than one of these categories. Participants who selected both male and female were categorized as "other Gender."
GLSEN is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all stu... more GLSEN is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established in 1990, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community. For more information on our educator resources, research, public policy agenda, student leadership programs, or development initiatives, visit www.glsen.org. Graphic design: Adam Fredericks Quotes throughout are from students' responses to open-ended questions in the survey. Electronic versions of this report and all other GLSEN research reports are available at www.glsen.org/research. • Adopting and implementing comprehensive bullying/harassment policies that specifically enumerate sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in individual schools and districts, with clear and effective systems for reporting and addressing incidents that students experience. Taken together, such measures can move us toward a future in which all students have the opportunity to learn and succeed in school, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. * Throughout this report we use LGBTQ when referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students and the LGBTQ population in general. Although prior installments of the National School Climate Survey have used LGBT, we have explicitly added queer in this installment as a result of the increase in an observed self-identification of students as queer over time. However, there are instances when referring to particular survey items that we will use LGBT to reflect how the question was asked in the survey.
For lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, schools are often sites of exclusion an... more For lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, schools are often sites of exclusion and victimization. Research has demonstrated that LGBT youth experience elevated rates of victimization and bullying at school relative to their peers, but less research has explored the contexts and characteristics of schools that enable negative attitudes and behaviors toward LGBT youth. The authors examine how US schools construct environments that are unwelcoming and unsafe for LGBT students and largely fail to provide the supports that could improve the school learning climate. They examine strategies and practices employed by educators, students, and education advocates that can disrupt hetero- and gender-normative practices in schools. Specifically, this chapter examine the mechanisms by which LGBT-related school supports—gay–straight alliances (GSAs), comprehensive anti-bullying/harassment school policies, supportive educators, and LGBT-inclusive curricula—support students’ well-being and academic success and challenge the hetero- and gender-normativity embedded in US secondary schools.
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Papers by Emily Greytak