Do LGBTQ students in your state feel safer at school or at home?

LGBTQ students feel safer at school than at home, with more than half calling their school an affirming space, according to a new national survey that covered all 50 states. This doesn’t hold true in every state and, not surprisingly, students feel far more comfortable in some parts of the country than they do in others.

Overall, 55% of the 34,000 LGBTQ youth surveyed identified their schools as affirming spaces compared to 37% who said the same about their homes, according to the 2022 mental health survey by The Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide prevention organization. A staggering 45% of LGBTQ youth said they had seriously considered suicide in the past year but, the survey found, those rates were lower among students who reported feeling safe at school or in their community.

Also troubling is that the number of LGBTQ youth who considered suicide has been rising steadily since 2020 and 60% of the young people in these communities who wanted mental health care were not able to get it.

“LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society,” The Trevor Project says.

More from DA: Student-teacher ratios are falling—Here are numbers from all 50 states 

Students felt safest at school in Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, California and New Mexico. They reported feeling least affirmed in Mississippi, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama and Kentucky.

LGBTQ students state-by-state

Here is the number of LGBTQ students in each state who said their school was a safe place, with the number who said the same about their homes in parentheses:

1. Alabama: 32% (29%)
2. Alaska: 38% (33%)
3. Arizona: 45% (33%)
4. Arkansas: 34% (39%)
5. California: 50% (30%)
6. Colorado: 42% (33%)
7. Connecticut: 51% (37%)
8. Delaware: 53% (39%)
9. Florida: 43% (33%)
10. Georgia: 41% (31%)
11. Hawaii: 41% (32%)
12. Idaho: 33% (42%)
13. Illinois: 43% (40%)
14. Indiana: 42% (40%)
15. Iowa: 46% (40%)
16. Kansas: 33% (38%)
17. Kentucky: 32% (38%)
18. Louisiana: 34% (38%)
19. Maine: 47% (41%)
20. Maryland: 48% (32%)
21. Massachusetts: 51% (39%)
22. Michigan: 42% (39%)
23. Minnesota: 41% (45%)
24. Mississippi: 23% (34%)
25. Missouri: 38% (43%)
26. Montana: 36% (46%)
27. Nebraska: 39% (39%)
28. Nevada: 38% (33%)
29. New Hampshire: 33% (38%)
30. New Jersey: 52% (29%)
31. New Mexico: 50% (46%)
32. New York: 45% (38%)
33. North Carolina: 41% (33%)
34. North Dakota: 35% (42%)
35. Ohio: 37% (37%)
36. Oklahoma: 31% (39%)
37. Oregon: 47% (51%)
38. Pennsylvania: 42% (38%)
39. Rhode Island: 42% (38%)
40. South Carolina: 40% (34%)
41. South Dakota: 42% (38%)
42. Tennessee: 37% (35%)
43. Texas: 43% (32%)
44. Utah: 36% (41%)
45. Vermont: 45% (58%)
46. Virginia: 44% (38%)
47. Washington: 49% (45%)
48. West Virginia: 30% (37%)
49. Wisconsin: 43% (46%)
50. Wyoming: 48% (47%)