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9.1: Education and LGBTQ+ Youth - Overview - Image needs replacing

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    Introduction

    Youth spend the majority of their lives involved in schools and associated activities. Concurrent with social and emotional development, LGBTQ+ youths’ sexual and gender identities are evolving. Some LGBTQ+ youth face challenges with underrepresentation in school curricula; lack of educational programming; and discrimination, harassment, and oppression by peers, teachers, and parents. However, with the changing cultural narrative toward acceptance, LGBTQ+ youth are finding more than ever before environments that are accepting, access to services tailored to LGBTQ+ youth, and opportunities to connect with other youth through clubs, organizations, and other youth programming. This chapter focuses on the current social and educational barriers to healthy LGBTQ+ youth development, such as inequities and injustice, on LGBTQ+ youths’ resiliency and on the role of supportive adults in facilitating positive youth development.

    LGBTQ+ persons experience significant growth and development through youth and adolescence. Many of the important milestones, including identity recognition, coming out, and transitioning, can occur during these years. Positive family, educator, and peer responses toward LGBTQ+ youth can set the framework for healthy development, whereas rejection can lead to negative mental, emotional, and physical health and educational outcomes. This chapter describes identity development for LGBTQ+ individuals, family response, the impact of educational establishments on development, inclusive school practices, and other important aspects of the lives of youth and adolescents (figure 9.1). Each aspect of development and each environmental and social system within the lives of LGBTQ+ youth can become a protective factor at a time when acceptance is still evolving throughout the United States.

    Two teens look at a phone, smiling.
    Figure 9.1. LGBTQ+ teens supporting one another. (Unsplash license, Shingi Rice.)

    Identity Disclosure

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    Youth are socialized from a young age through the lens of heteronormativity and cisnormativity, or the view that everyone is heterosexual and straight, which creates difficult conditions for LGBTQ+ students. From as early as elementary school, youth are taught that anything outside heterosexuality equates to being bad and that the romantic relationships LGBTQ+ youth have are abnormal.[1] Because society makes the presumption that all youth are cisgender and heterosexual, youth are often burdened with having to disclose their identities to others, historically referred to as coming out. Identity disclosure is different for sexual minority, transgender, and gender-nonconforming youth; their evolution of identity and disclosure of it can be a vastly different experience from that of others. Sexual- and gender-minority development and disclosure are described later in the chapter.

    LGBTQ+ Demographics

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    Youth and adolescents acknowledge their sexual orientation and disclose it to others earlier than ever before. Youth initially recognize they are attracted to another person of the same gender at about age 10. Estimates show some understanding their identities as young as 7, with the average age at around 13.4. With increased visibility of LGBTQ+ persons in mainstream culture, it is likely these ages are becoming younger.[2]

    Approximately 2 percent of youth identify as gay or lesbian, 6 percent as bisexual, 3 percent as not sure of their sexual identity, and 2–3 percent as transgender or gender nonconforming. These labels stay consistent into early adulthood. Approximately 3 percent of young adults ages eighteen to twenty-six describe themselves as exclusively or mostly homosexual or bisexual, with more females (3.4 percent) than males (2.6 percent) identifying as LGBTQ+. Conservative estimates report 3.5 percent of adults, or approximately nine million people, in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.[3]

    Two studies have been conducted on the rates of identity disclosure to parents of LGBTQ+ youth in the United States. Both studies reported more than half (56 percent and 59 percent) of the LGBTQ+ youth studied were out to their families. Coming out can be challenging for LGBTQ+ youth. Many sexual minority youth who have not come out (30 percent) report that the most frequent obstacle to coming out is fear that their family may not be accepting of them or even that their family has been openly discriminatory. A small proportion (19 percent) state that they are not sure how their families would react, and 10 percent state that they are not ready to come out. Some youth, however, resist identity-based labels and perceive disclosing their sexuality as unimportant.[4]

    Transgender or Nonbinary Identity Disclosure and Demographics

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    As of 2022, an estimated 300,00, or 1.4 percent, of U.S. youth ages thirteen to seventeen identify as transgender. Youth in this age group were significantly more likely to identify as transgender than adults age 65 or older, and constitute 18% of the national transgender-identified population. The study found that young people identify as transgender at different rates in different states; estimates ranged from 3.0% in New York to 0.6% in Wyoming. The study also found that White people were less likely to identify as transgender than Latinx people, American Indian or Alaska Native, and biracial/multiracial groups. [5]

    A 2018 report by the Human Rights Campaign found only 21 percent of transgender and gender-expansive youth to be out to their parents, and 33 percent of youth were considering whom to disclose to in their family and how to manage these relationships after disclosure (figure 9.2). In 2018, nearly half (41 percent) of all transgender and gender-expansive youth had at least one parent to whom they have come out. Research suggests concern over family response is a barrier to coming out. Although both mothers and fathers were anticipated by their child to act negatively to a disclosure at least half the time, fathers are more likely to respond negatively than mothers (63 percent vs. 54 percent).[6]

    Research has found that youth begin to understand the concept of gender identity as early as ages one and two. In these earlier stages, youth start to internalize the physical differences (penis, vulva, breasts) between genders. At these ages, children do not necessarily have a full grasp of their own identity or what it means to identify as a certain gender, but they begin to understand what those parts of a body symbolize. By age three, children can label their own gender, and by four they feel quite certain about their gender identity. All children during these years before puberty explore their gender presentation and expression and experiment with toys typical to their gender or of the “opposite” gender. By the time youth reach five to six years of age, they adopt rules about what it means to be a certain gender and what will be accepted by others. By age seven, youth feel a sense of gender constancy and may begin fantasizing about being another gender or having different physical characteristics to align with their identity.[7]

    2018.06.09_Capital_Pride_Parade,_Washington,_DC_USA_03177_(27844679577).jpg
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Someone holding a sign that says "Protect Trans Kids" at a 2018 Capital Pride Parade, Washington, DC . (CC BY-SA; Ted Eytan via Wikimedia)

    Gender-nonconforming youth may then try to reconcile the differences between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity by making subtle changes to their dress and social appearance. They may alter styles, wearing more masculine or feminine clothing, and use different names or pronouns. Allowing youth to socially transition, or begin to live according to their true gender identity, can have very positive effects. It can reduce their distress and dysphoria, and it can reduce the likelihood of developing depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal ideation and attempts, self-harm, isolation, homelessness, and incarceration.[8]

    Read

    In 2013, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of 1,197 LGBTQ+ adults about their perceptions of society’s acceptance of LGBTQ+ issues and about their experiences of prejudice and discrimination. The study focuses on lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals, but it also contains important information on transgender Americans and LGBTQ+ people of color. Access the Pew Research Center's survey results. (www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/06/13/a-survey-of-lgbt-americans/)

    • What are three of your main takeaways from the survey? What surprised you, and what did not surprise you?
    • Why is it important for parents and educators to understand the ages at which children and youth begin to understand their own sexuality and gender?
    • What are some of the differences among the experiences of gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals? What about LGBTQ+ people of color versus white LGBTQ+ people? What social structures might help explain those differences?

    Check Your Knowledge

    Contributed by Has Arakelyan, Rio Hondo College

    Multiple-Choice Questions

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    1. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a challenge faced by LGBTQ+ youth in schools?

    A) Underrepresentation in school curricula
    B) Lack of educational programming
    C) Discrimination and harassment
    D) Guaranteed access to supportive services

    2. What is described as a protective factor for LGBTQ+ youth during their development?A) Rejection by family and peers
    B) Positive responses from family, educators, and peers
    C) Lack of inclusive school practices
    D) Absence of youth programming

    3. According to the chapter, what can negative family, educator, and peer responses lead to for LGBTQ+ youth?|
    A) Improved academic performance
    B) Negative mental, emotional, and physical health outcomes
    C) Increased access to clubs and organizations
    D) Early identity recognition

    4. Which milestone is commonly experienced by LGBTQ+ youth during adolescence?
    A) retirement
    B) identity recognition and coming out
    C) marriage
    D) career advancement

    5. What role do supportive adults play in the lives of LGBTQ+ youth, according to the chapter?
    A) They act as barriers to development.
    B) They facilitate positive youth development.
    C) They enforce strict gender norms.
    D) They discourage participation in youth programming.

    Discussion Questions

    1. How does early socialization through heteronormativity and cis-normativity affect LGBTQ+ youth in educational settings?
    2. In what ways can schools create more inclusive and supportive environments for LGBTQ+ students?
    3. Discuss the role of family, educators, and peers in the healthy development of LGBTQ+ youth. What are some positive and negative impacts?
    4. Why might some LGBTQ+ youth choose not to label their identities or disclose them to others? How should educators and peers respond to this choice?
    5. What are the potential mental and emotional health outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth who experience rejection versus those who are supported in their identity development?

    Multiple-Choice Questions - Answers

    1. D) Guaranteed access to supportive services
    2. B) Positive responses from family, educators, and peers
    3. B) Negative mental, emotional, and physical health outcomes
    4. B) identity recognition and coming out
    5. B) They facilitate positive youth development.

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    This page titled 9.1: Education and LGBTQ+ Youth - Overview - Image needs replacing is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Has Arakelyan.