Survey: Many LGBTQIA+ youth feel unsafe at home, school
As WorldPride began on Saturday in Amsterdam, many LGBTQIA+ young people say they do not feel safe at school, on the street, or even at home. That finding comes from a questionnaire by NOS Stories completed by about 8,000 LGBTQIA+ people aged 13 to 19.
More than half of the respondents said their parents do not know they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Some do not dare to tell them because they fear their parents would not accept them.
A quarter of the respondents said they do not feel safe with one or both parents. One of them told NOS, "I have been called a punishment from God, a genetic failure, and something that shouldn’t really exist.”
Another young person has not yet told her parents. She said her parents already react fiercely when a same-sex couple appears on TV. “If they already react like that to strangers, how will they react to their own daughter?”
Advocacy group COC said it was shocked by the figures. “It is very sad that so many young people do not feel safe with their parents to be LGBTQIA+.”
COC also said young people often take a long time to tell their parents out of fear of the reaction. But the group emphasized that the fear is often unfounded. “Because the vast majority of parents ultimately do accept that their child is LGBTQIA+.”
At school, many LGBTQIA+ young people also reportedly find it difficult to be themselves. Four in 10 of those who filled out the questionnaire said they do not feel safe there. More than half of the respondents said negative comments about LGBTQIA+ people are regularly made.
“I know that if I go to school, the chance that I will be called names is present every day. Ever since the first grade I have had to fight,” a youth told NOS.
Another young person said: “At my school there are LGBTQIA+ people who are more open about it. When they walk in the hallway, they are called names and sometimes pushed. Then I think, "Okay, good that you don’t know that about me.”
On the street, six in 10 of the LGBTQIA+ youths who filled out the questionnaire said they do not feel safe. Nearly half of the respondents said they sometimes receive negative comments, and three in 10 said they sometimes face aggression on the street.
“You just get called names, you get attacked, you get chased. At home I am already afraid to be who I am, and in the outside world too,” one young person told NOS.
According to COC, help is available for LGBTQIA+ young people who are having a hard time at home or at school. “For a listening ear you can also confidently turn to a COC helpline, such as Switchboard or Genderpraatjes. If you want to get to know more people like you, you can, for example, also join the GSA (Gender and Sexuality Alliance) at your school; those are groups of LGBTQIA+ young people and their friends.”
