Results, predictably, were grim. In almost every facet of their personal health, LGB students fare worse than their peers. 23 percent reported experiencing sexual dating violence, and 18 percent reported experiencing physical dating violence, compared with 9 percent and 8 percent of heterosexual students, respectively. More than 10 percent said they've had to miss school at least once during the past month out of concern for their safety.
Perhaps most shocking was the data pertaining to suicide: Some 29.4 percent of LGB students tried to kill themselves in 2015, almost five times as many as straight students. And 42.8 percent experienced some form of suicidal ideation. [...]
While the survey's results were revelatory to some, and merely further evidence of conclusions already known to others, it provokes a more alarming series of questions about the ways in which we still fail to fully comprehend the scope of LGBTQ health risks in America. [...]
The limited nature of such data complicates the work of officials and researchers who deal in public health, and for whom LGBTQ suicides demand an informed policy response. Haas in particular coauthored a 2011 study in the Journal of Homosexuality which found that LGBTQ Americans showed a lifetime propensity for anxiety, mood swings and mental health disorders well beyond adolescence. But without proper data collection on the part of health agencies, it's hard to understand suicide as a lifelong problem for marginalized communities, or how America's changing attitudes towards homosexuality may be trickling down to the crucible of the schoolyard.
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