Now, this is an on-line survey by the UK queer rights group Stonewall. So all of the methodological caveats apply (not generalizable, might be “garbage in, garbage out” etc., etc.,). That said, it is congruent with what I’ve been seeing in the US. That is, it SEEMS that queer folks are coming out at younger and younger ages (say middle school or early high school), than in their late 20s (me).
But if similar data were found in the US (using better methods), the findings would be very important to public schools, the politics of education, and educational policy. It would mean that public school educators could NOT ignore the reality of queer youth in their midst (of course, they’ve always been there, but I digress).
If anyone is looking for a dissertation topic, I invite you to chase this one.
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