New report shows affirming adults are critical to the success of LGBTQ+ studentshttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/04/new-report-shows-affirming-adults-are-critical-to-the-success-of-lgbtq-students/ 🔗Greg Owen (11 April 2026)
Glisten, the LGBTQ+ education advocacy group, has a new report out detailing what it's like to be an LGBTQ+ student today, "at a time when their identities are being weaponized against them."
Those identities "are being debated and restricted," said the group's CEO, Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, and "this study speaks truth to a menacing power."
Key findings paint a layered portrait of LGBTQ+ youth who "are whole people with complex lives that defy the tired boxes of 'victim' or 'leader' into which they are so often placed," Willingham-Jaggers said.
While support systems are being dismantled – the elimination of GSAs at some schools, restrictive bathroom policies at others, and policies debating the very existence of some students or their peers in the form of gender-affirming care bans and bans on trans student-athletes – LGBTQ+ students are picking up the slack to support one another, the report found.
"It's nice to just be friends with someone that's also queer," said a Latine 10th grader in New York. "We will come together as a little community, and we protect one another from the bullying."
Support from those in positions of power, and proactive policies accompanying that support, however, may make the biggest difference in how LGBTQ+ students experience school, the report showed.
