LGBTQ Sex Ed & Safety: A Survey of New York City High School Students

In recent years, students from the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Teen Activist Project and Youth Organizing Institute have identified bullying and harassment and the lack of comprehensive sex education as major problems in New York City schools.

In 2016 and 2017, both programs conduted annonymous, non-representative surveys of their peers in dozens of New York City high schools.

This brief, LGBTQ Sex Ed & Safety: A Survey of New York City High School Students, presents key findings from these surveys. The results show that LGBTQ identities and relationships are often unaddressed in sex education in schools, and that most students are unaware their school is mandated to have a coordinator who responds to identity-based discrimination and bullying.