ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, a major focus and goal among researchers, practitioners, and policy makers working with sexual minority youth (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning youth; LGBTQ) has been to promote safer and more welcoming schools for this population. This focus has been driven by many factors, including the consistent finding that many LGBTQ youth experience homophobic harassment at school from peers and adults (Grossman & D’Augelli, 2006; Rivers, 2001; Russell, Everett, Rosario, & Birkett, 2014). Further, LGBTQ youth face pronounced disparities across many health and academic outcomes. For instance, LGBTQ youth report greater anxiety, depression, traumatic stress, truancy, poorer grades, less school belonging and safety, and less intent to graduate than heterosexual youth (Birkett, Russell, & Corliss, 2014; Coker, Austin, & Schuster, 2010; Poteat, Mereish, DiGiovanni, & Koenig, 2011). These sexual orientation-based disparities have been tied to the higher rates of victimization that LGBTQ youth experience compared to heterosexual youth. Because schools are one of the primary contexts in which children and adolescents spend most of their time, addressing the experiences of LGBTQ youth in this setting is critical to promoting their health and well-being.
