Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee

LGBT Students Deserve Protection

The age of significant life events is trending downward and middle school educators need to pay it more attention. The average age that today’s LGBT teenagers come out to their friends and in some cases parents, according to the Massachusetts Commission on LGBT Youth, is 13.4 years old.  As a middle school principal for 15 years I learned first hand that middle school LGBT students face extreme levels of harassment daily. Words can be very hurtful, leading in some instances to suicide. In fact, some data indicates that 30 percent of teen suicides are related to LGBT harassment. 

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