Facts and figures

Arange of research has been carried out into the incidence and effects of homophobic bullying. We have compiled a collection of the key findings to illustrate the extent of the problem and its impact on the lives of the young people being bullied in this way. A full list of references is available in the Further Reading  section.

On this page:

Bullying

Verbal abuse 92%
Malicious gossip 76%
Intimidating looks 62%
Ignored and isolated 58%
Cyberbullying 41%
Physical abuse 41%
Vandalism and theft of property 30%
Death threats 17%
Threatened with a weapon 13%
Sexual assault 12%

• Research carried out in Reading by ReachOUT noted that Black and Asian LGB young people faced a number of additional problems on top of the bullying, including racism, homophobia from within their own communities and conflict around their identity.
  
• An estimated 2,725 young people call ChildLine each year to talk about sexual orientation, homophobia or homophobic bullying. Males account for 55% of the calls about these issues, even though they account for only 25% of total calls to ChildLine. Boys were more than twice as likely to report being physically bullied. 60% of the young people who called ChildLine about sexual orientation, homophobia or homophobic bullying were 12-15 years old. (ChildLine, Sexual Orientation, homophobia and homophobic bullying).
  
•  Bullying at school, when combined with homophobia in the home environment or local neighbourhood commonly induced a sense of hopelessness amongst the young homeless LGB people interviewed for Hidden in Plain Sight: Homelessness amongst Lesbian and Gay Youth. This recurrently led young LGB people to leave home in the hope of escaping the abuse.

Violence

• Of those who have been bullied, 41 per cent have experienced physical bullying (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• One in eight (13 per cent) gay pupils has been threatened with a weapon and one in six (17%) has been subjected to death threats (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Thirty per cent of those who have experienced homophobic bullying have had property vandalised or stolen (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Of those who have been bullied, 12% have experienced sexual assault (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Boys are more likely to experience physical bullying: over two fifths of boys, and over a third of girls have suffered physical homophobic bullying. This reflects the general
  statistics around bullying that indicate boys are more likely to experience physical bullying than girls (Tackling Bullying: Listening to the views of children and young people, ChildLine 2003).
  
• In the Stonewall survey Queer Bashing (1996), 18% of young LGB people had been to the police (compared with 31% overall).

Language

• Ninety four per cent of gay boys and 90 per cent of gay girls who have experienced homophobic bullying have faced verbal abuse (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Even if gay pupils are not directly experiencing bullying, they are learning in an environment where homophobic language and comments are commonplace, as are their heterosexual peers. Ninety eight per cent of young gay people hear the phrases “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” in school, and over four fifths hear such comments often or frequently (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Ninety seven per cent hear other insulting homophobic remarks, such as “poof”, “dyke”, “rug-muncher”, “queer” and “bender”. Over seven in ten gay pupils hear the phrases used often, or frequently (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Over half (52 per cent) of lesbian and gay pupils  have heard homophobic remarks from teachers or other school staff. Thirty per cent of lesbian and gay pupils report that adults have been responsible for incidents of homophobic bullying in their schools (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).

Curriculum

• Seven in ten gay pupils have never been taught about lesbian and gay people or seen lesbian and gay issues addressed in class (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Three quarters of those who experience homophobic bullying have never seen lesbian and gay issues addressed in class. Lesbian and gay pupils who have been taught about gay issues are 13 per cent less likely to experience
  homophobic bullying (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Over half of young lesbian and gay people do not like playing team sports, but if they are bullied this is 22 per cent more likely (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Two in five lesbian and gay pupils do not participate in any extra curricular activities and nearly half do not participate in any volunteering opportunities outside school, compared with
  those who have not been bullied (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).

Academic attainment

• Lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils say that homophobic bullying affects their school work. Seven out of ten pupils who experience homophobic bullying state that this impacts on their school work. Over half of all lesbian and gay pupils, even if they have not been bullied, think homophobic bullying impacts on their school work. Girls are more likely to acknowledge that homophobic bullying affects their work (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Gay pupils from black and ethnic minority backgrounds (even if they have not been bullied) are twice as likely as white pupils to disagree with the statement “I plan to go to university or college when I finish school” and are three and half times more likely to disagree with the statement “It is important for me to finish school with good qualifications” (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• A study in Lancashire (Preventing Homophobic Bullying in Calderdale Schools) found that the effects of homophobic abuse, isolation and invisibility mean that LGB young people have high levels of truancy, drop-out and low exams results, as well as high levels of mental health problems, panic attacks, eating disorders and suicide attempts.

Mental health

• Half of young lesbian and gay people feel that it is hard for people like them to be accepted at school, and half feel unable to be themselves. Over a third are unhappy at school (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Of those lesbian and gay young people who have been bullied, 44 per cent are unhappy. Over a third of young lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils do not feel part of their school community. If they have been bullied, they are 50 per cent more likely to feel this (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Guidance by the NASUWT, Tackling Homophobic Bullying , states that homophobic bullying may lead to low self-esteem, a culture of fear, pupil indiscipline, pupil or staff absenteeism, reduced staff productivity, staff turnover, poor teaching performance, reduced learning outcomes, stress, loss of health, and self-harm.
  
• 50% of LGB adults who had been bullied at school contemplated self-harm or suicide. Forty per cent had made at least one attempt to self harm, 53% had contemplated self-harm as result of being bullied,  40% had attempted suicide on at least one occasion and 30% had attempted on more than one occasion (Rivers, I. 2000).
  
• Research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2003 (Mental health and quality of life of gay men and lesbians in England and Wales ) compared the mental health of gay people and their straight counterparts. It found that discrimination and intolerance led to a higher rate of mental anxiety, substance use disorders and suicidal behaviour among gay people. Over 1000 lesbians and gay people took part in the research and a significant proportion had experienced verbal and physical bullying in school on account of their sexual orientation.

Policy

• Fewer than a quarter of schools have said that homophobic bullying is wrong. In schools that have said homophobic bullying is wrong, gay young people are 60 per cent more likely not to have been bullied (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Over a third of all lesbian, gay and bisexual young people do not feel safe at school. If they have been bullied, they are significantly less likely (60 per cent) to feel safe, compared to those who have never been bullied (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).
  
• Stonewall’s Playing it Safe: Responses of Secondary School Teachers to Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Pupils, Bullying, HIV/AIDS Education and Section 28 (1997), found that:

99% of schools had general anti-bullying policies

6% of schools had anti-bullying policies that dealt with LGB issues

• The study found that the most often cited factors that hinder the efforts of teachers and schools in addressing issues of homophobia were:

Worries about parental disapproval (22%)

Lack of experienced staff (15%)

Lack of policies (14%)

• In a survey conducted in the Greater Reading area, only one school had provided training for its governors and staff around issues of sexuality, eight had not. (Social Inclusion: Reaching Out to Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Youth , Reading, ReachOUT, 1999).