What Information is Available About the Needs of Gay and Lesbian Youth in School?
Answered by Kirsten Kingdon, executive director of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). April 18, 2001
What information is available about the needs of gay and lesbian youth in school?
Q: I am currently working on a research paper on social work and gay and lesbian youth and am having a hard time finding any information. I am specifically attempting to focus the paper around the need for social workers and social services to be available to gay and lesbian youth in school. Do you have any suggestions about where I can find some information?
Thanks,
David
A: Dear David,
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth continue to live in an environment where support is not always easy to find.
For example, the 1999 Report on the Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth to be four times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual youth. In a 1999 school climate survey conducted by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN), over 90 percent of the lesbian and gay youth reported hearing homophobic remarks in their school, with over one-third of those students reporting homophobic remarks from faculty or school staff.
These alarming figures send a clear message supporting the need for services such as trained counselors in today's schools. PFLAG encourages schools to give students access to resources and people who can help guide them through these rough roads as part of our safe schools campaign, "From Our House to the Schoolhouse."
For more resources, please consider reading: Telling Tales Out of School by Kevin Jennings; Social Work with Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals: A Strengths Perspective by Katherine Van Wormer, Joe Wells and Mary Boes; School's Out by Dan Woog; and Queering Elementary Education by William Letts and James Sears. Also consider reading Social Services with Transgendered Youth by Gerald Mallon; and Lesbian and Gay Youth by Caitlin Ryan and Donna Futterman.
Sincerely,
Kirsten Kingdon
Kingdon is the executive director of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).
April 18, 2001