Dive Brief:
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Nearly a third of LGBTQ+ secondary and postsecondary students ages 13 to 24 said they attended a school with at least one anti-LGBTQ+ policy, such as curriculum restrictions on gender and identity issues, according to a data analysis released by The Trevor Project on Wednesday.
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LGBTQ+ students who reported attending a school with at least one anti-LGBTQ+ policy reported higher rates of negative experiences in school, such as being verbally harassed, receiving unwanted sexual contact or being physically attacked.
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For LGBTQ+ students attending a school with at least one adverse policy, 44% said they only attended school sometimes, compared to LGBTQ+ students attending schools with no such policy (38%).
Dive Insight:
Eight states have laws censoring LGBTQ+ discussions in the classroom, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks measures on LGBTQ+ issues. Meanwhile, 25 states lack laws protecting students from bullying based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Laws and policies on a number of related issues like facility access and pronoun usage also vary widely by state.
"Many of these policies were only recently implemented and their impact cannot yet be measured," said the Trevor Project report, which surveyed 18,000 LGBTQ+ youth. Overall, 78% of LGBTQ+ young people reported being enrolled in school at the time of survey administration.
Researchers also noted that rather than using the term "sexual assault," the report's use of "unwanted sexual contact" was "because that is how the question was posed to survey respondents and we try to be very specific when posing questions to young people about their experiences (especially on stigmatized or taboo topics).”
A separate report released in May from the same organization showed that earlier this year 90% of LGBTQ+ youth said their well-being was negatively impacted due to recent politics. That's compared to 66% last year who said that hearing about potential local or state laws banning related issues at school took a toll on their mental health.
In addition to the reported negative impact on student mental health, LGBTQ+ students who attend schools with policies adverse to their identities also report lower rates of support at school, per the most recent report.
In 2021, when anti-LGBTQ+ policies or proposals were spreading, the percentage of students who reported having many LGBTQ+ supportive school personnel dipped from recent years, specifically between 2013 and 2019, according to a 2022 GLSEN report.
Advocates of such policies often cite ideological or religious concerns. LGBTQ+ curricula, discussions and some supportive policies like pronoun usage detracts from parents' rights to raise their children as they see fit, they say.
However, while 6 out of 10 Americans view age appropriateness as "a legitimate reason" to restrict book access, far fewer say parents' political views, religious beliefs or moral values are valid drivers of such policies, according to results from a random national survey of more than 4,500 adults released Wednesday by the Knight Foundation.
