this is a repost of new data just relased from landa legal
Original artical at http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/resources.html?record=1662
Maybe you didn't realize this, but GAY & LESBIAN YOUTH ARE NOT A SMALL GROUP. Estimates suggest 2.7 million Americans between the ages of 14 and 27 define themselves as "something other than straight." (source: U.S. Census, Osmosis MediaLab, YGA Survey)
LGBTQ Youth Risk Data
Fostering Transitions: CWLA/Lambda Legal Joint Initiative to Support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Youth and Adults Involved with the Child Welfare System
To download this page as a PDF, click here.
25-40% of youth who become homeless each year are LGBT.
(Kruks G, Journal of Adolescent Health.)
50% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ.
(Mallon, G, We Don’t Exactly Get the Welcome Wagon: The Experiences of Gay and Lesbian Adolescents in the Child Welfare Systems.)
26% of gay youth are forced to leave home because of conflicts with family members over sexual orientation.
(Rhode Island Task Force on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth.)
23% of GLB youth have been threatened with a weapon at school. 52% feel sad and hopeless. 48% have seriously considered suicide. 29% have attempted suicide. GLB youth are two-to-three times more likely to get pregnant or get someone pregnant than heterosexual youth.
(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
30% of all completed adolescent suicides in the U.S. are by LGBT youth.
(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.)
28% of LGBT youth drop out of school because of verbal or physical harassment by other students.
(Savin-Williams, RC, Journal of Consulting Clinical Psychology.
78% of youth report that young people who are gay or thought to be gay are teased or bullied in their schools and communities. 93% hear other youth at school or in their neighborhood use words like "fag," "homo," "dyke," "queer," or "gay" at least once in a while, with 51% hearing them every day.
(National Mental Health Association.)
50% of gay males report negative reactions from their parents when they disclosed their sexual orientation and 26% were forced to leave home as a result of disclosing their sexual orientation to their parents.
(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.)
33% of gay men and 34% of lesbians report suffering physical violence from family members as a result of their sexual orientation.
(Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force.)
50% of transgendered youth trade sex for money or a place to live.
(Massachusetts Department of Public Health.)
30% of young, black gay men in America are infected with HIV disease.
(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
LGBT youth are twice as likely as heterosexual youth to abuse alcohol, and eight times as likely to use cocaine/crack.
(Garofalo, R, MD, et al, The American Association of Pediatrics.)
LGBT homeless youth are physically or sexually victimized on average by seven more people than heterosexual homeless youth; leave home an average of 12 times compared to seven times for heterosexual homeless youth; had nearly twice as many sexual partners in their lives than did heterosexual homeless youth; and used 11 of 12 substances more frequently during the previous six months.
(University of Washington.)
We still have a ways to go to find complete acceptance with numbers like these
The following have adopted policies against discrimination based on sexual orientation:
The American Psychiatric Association (APA)
The American Psychological Association (APA)
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW)
The American Medical Association (AMA)
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
The American Counseling Association (ACA)
The American School Health Association (ASHA)
The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA)
The following have issued statements condemning attempts by child welfare and mental health professionals to alter a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through so called reparative or conversion therapies:
The American Psychiatric Association (APA)
The American Psychological Association (APA)
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW)
The American Counseling Association (ACA)
For more information about the CWLA/Lambda Legal LGBTQ Joint Initiative, please contact:
Rob Woronoff, MS
LGBTQ Program Manager, CWLA
202-662-4292
rworonoff@cwla.org
Rudy Estrada
Foster Care Attorney, Lambda Legal
312-663-4413
restrada@lambdalegal.org
