25% Of Gay And Lesbian Students In Massachusetts Are Homeless – Harvard
25% of gay and lesbian students, and an additional 15% of bisexual students, in Massachusetts are homeless, states a new Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School study released Thursday, which finds that by comparison, only three percent of exclusively heterosexual students are homeless. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, examined more than 6,300 Massachusetts public high school students, and found that in addition to higher the rates of homelessness among gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, those sexual minority students were more likely to be without parents or guardians.
“Prior studies in homeless street youth have found that sexual minorities occur in much higher numbers than we’d expect based on their numbers in the community in general,” says Heather Corliss, Ph.D., MPH, of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston, the study’s lead author. “This study looked at the magnitude of the difference for the first time.”
It is important to note a few factors.
The study examined students only in Massachusetts public high schools and did not include students in private schools. Additionally, sadly, many homeless youth of all orientations do not attend school. As we know that LGBT youth are homeless at a much higher rate than their heterosexual peers, it’s a fair assumption to suggest that the actual overall numbers are even higher than this study finds.
Additionally, as Massachusetts is unique in being the first state to offer same-sex marriage, one might make the case that attitudes toward its LGBT youth are far more accepting than in other states around the country, so it’s important to not apply this data to the rest of the country.
“Since it is a school-based study, findings presumably underestimate the percent of students who are homeless if homeless students are less likely to show up to school on average each day than non-homeless students, which is entirely probable,” the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Corliss, an Instructor of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School, told The New Civil Rights Movement, adding, “it is not possible to generalize findings from this study to the entire US, and we acknowledge this in our report.”
“One could imagine that the homeless youth in street- and shelter-based studies are even more vulnerable than homeless youth identified through school-based studies. Nonetheless, the homeless students in our study are clearly more vulnerable than their non-homeless counterparts.”
“Only future studies with additional samples across the nation can tell us how Massachusetts compares to other parts of the country,” Corliss, an author of dozens of studies, said. “We can assume that it is better for LGBT youth in Massachusetts because attitudes about homosexuality are more favorable here than other parts of the country and there are more efforts to assist LGBT youth. But without data, we don’t know for sure.”
Corliss and the research team, “combined data from the 2005 and 2007 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a representative sample of public school students in grades 9 though 12,” according to the study’s abstract. “Youth homelessness is linked with numerous threats such as violence, substance use, and mental health problems. Although discrimination and victimization related to minority sexual orientation status are believed to be important causal factors, research is needed to improve our understanding of the risks and protective factors for homelessness and to determine effective strategies to prevent homelessness in this population.”
Bottom line: LGBT students and teens overall are homeless at exponentially higher rates than their heterosexual counterparts. More studies must be done, but more resources must be applied to help our lost youth, and to stop this tragic epidemic.
Support In Massachusetts:
A list of national resources for teens and youth can be found on the websites of the Center for Young Women’s Health and the Center for Young Men’s Health.
Support and assistance are available from the youth-led Boston Alliance of Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgendered Youth and through drop-in-centers run by the Boston-based Justice Resource Institute (Boston GLASS) and the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts (Youth on Fire).
Health services for homeless youth are available at the Sidney Borum Jr. Health Center.
Support Nationally:
A list of national resources for teens and youth can be found on the websites of the Center for Young Women’s Health and the Center for Young Men’s Health.
Special services for homeless teens are available through the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
