25% of gay and lesbian students, and an additional 15% of bisexual students, in Massachusetts are homeless, states a new Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School study released Thursday, which finds that by comparison, only three percent of exclusively heterosexual students are homeless. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, examined more than 6,300 Massachusetts public high school students, and found that in addition to higher the rates of homelessness among gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, those sexual minority students were more likely to be without parents or guardians.
“Prior studies in homeless street youth have found that sexual minorities occur in much higher numbers than we’d expect based on their numbers in the community in general,” says Heather Corliss, Ph.D., MPH, of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston, the study’s lead author. “This study looked at the magnitude of the difference for the first time.”
It is important to note a few factors.
The study examined students only in Massachusetts public high schools and did not include students in private schools. Additionally, sadly, many homeless youth of all orientations do not attend school. As we know that LGBT youth are homeless at a much higher rate than their heterosexual peers, it’s a fair assumption to suggest that the actual overall numbers are even higher than this study finds.
Additionally, as Massachusetts is unique in being the first state to offer same-sex marriage, one might make the case that attitudes toward its LGBT youth are far more accepting than in other states around the country, so it’s important to not apply this data to the rest of the country.
“Since it is a school-based study, findings presumably underestimate the percent of students who are homeless if homeless students are less likely to show up to school on average each day than non-homeless students, which is entirely probable,” the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Corliss, an Instructor of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School, told The New Civil Rights Movement, adding, “it is not possible to generalize findings from this study to the entire US, and we acknowledge this in our report.”
“One could imagine that the homeless youth in street- and shelter-based studies are even more vulnerable than homeless youth identified through school-based studies. Nonetheless, the homeless students in our study are clearly more vulnerable than their non-homeless counterparts.”
“Only future studies with additional samples across the nation can tell us how Massachusetts compares to other parts of the country,” Corliss, an author of dozens of studies, said. “We can assume that it is better for LGBT youth in Massachusetts because attitudes about homosexuality are more favorable here than other parts of the country and there are more efforts to assist LGBT youth. But without data, we don’t know for sure.”
Corliss and the research team, “combined data from the 2005 and 2007 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a representative sample of public school students in grades 9 though 12,” according to the study’s abstract. “Youth homelessness is linked with numerous threats such as violence, substance use, and mental health problems. Although discrimination and victimization related to minority sexual orientation status are believed to be important causal factors, research is needed to improve our understanding of the risks and protective factors for homelessness and to determine effective strategies to prevent homelessness in this population.”
Bottom line: LGBT students and teens overall are homeless at exponentially higher rates than their heterosexual counterparts. More studies must be done, but more resources must be applied to help our lost youth, and to stop this tragic epidemic.
Support In Massachusetts:
A list of national resources for teens and youth can be found on the websites of the Center for Young Women’s Health and the Center for Young Men’s Health.
Support and assistance are available from the youth-led Boston Alliance of Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgendered Youth and through drop-in-centers run by the Boston-based Justice Resource Institute (Boston GLASS) and the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts (Youth on Fire).
Health services for homeless youth are available at the Sidney Borum Jr. Health Center.
Support Nationally:
A list of national resources for teens and youth can be found on the websites of the Center for Young Women’s Health and the Center for Young Men’s Health.
Special services for homeless teens are available through the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act.
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