Friday, August 12, 2016

USA: Gay and Lesbian High School Students Report ‘Heartbreaking’ Levels of Violence - NEWS

New York Times
August 11, 2016

     The first nationwide study to ask high school students about their sexuality found that gay, lesbian and bisexual teenagers were at far greater risk for depression, bullying and many types of violence than their straight peers.
     “I found the numbers heartbreaking,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, a senior official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which includes a division that administered the survey.
     The survey documents what smaller studies have suggested for years, but it is significant because it is the first time the federal government’s biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the gold standard of adolescent health data collection, looked at sexual identity. The survey found that about 8 percent of the high school population described themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual, which would be about 1.3 million students.
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  These newly available data are published in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The national 2015 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is the principal source of data for tracking health risk behaviors among the nation’s high school students.