National survey on homophobia in Canadian schools

Egale Canada Human Rights Trust, a national [Canada] organization that conducts research and delivers educational programming on LGBT human rights in Canada, has just released the first ever survey exploring homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in Canadian schools: Every Class in Every School: The first national climate survey on homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in Canadian schools. Final Report - May 2011.

The survey found (taken from a Toronto Star article on the survey):

• 64 per cent of queer students and 61 per cent with queer parents feel unsafe at school;

• 21 per cent of queer students report physical harassment/assault;

• 27 per cent of queer students report physical harassment about their parents’ sexual orientation and 37 per cent report verbal harassment;

• Transgender youth “are highly visible targets of harassment” who “may report experiencing particularly high levels of harassment on the basis of perceived sexual orientation” the report says;

• About 10 per cent of heterosexual teens report being physically harassed or assaulted for their “perceived” sexual orientation;

• 58 per cent of heterosexual teens “find homophobic comments upsetting.” Researchers said that suggests there is a lot of common ground to help push for an improved school climate.