New research suggests that across the UK, LGBT+ young people are twice as likely as their non-LGBT+ peers to contemplate suicide.
The survey of 2,934 secondary school pupils (1,140 of whom were LGBT+) across the UK by Just Like Us, the charity for LGBT+ young people, found that the pandemic is disproportionately impacting the mental health of LGBT+ young people.
The study found that LGBT+ young people in the UK are more than twice as likely to worry daily about mental health – 55% of LGBT+ 11 to 18 year olds in the UK are worrying daily about their mental health, compared to just 26% of non-LGBT+ young people.
LGBT+ young people in the UK are also twice as likely to feel lonely, with 52% reporting they feel lonely every day, compared to 27% of non-LGBT+ young people.
One in four (25%) LGBT+ secondary school pupils in the UK are experiencing daily tensions in the place they are living, such as arguments with family, compared to just 15% of non-LGBT+ young people.
Half (48%) of secondary school pupils in the UK say they have received little to zero positive messaging at school about being LGBT+ at all in the last 12 months.
LGBT+ pupils feel far less safe at school, the research also found. Only 58% of LGBT+ young people in the UK have felt safe at school on a daily basis in the past 12 months, compared to 73% of non-LGBT+ pupils.