I thank the sub-committee for inviting us. We had contact with the sub-committee when we made a submission in 2006, elements of which were included in a report that came out then. I thank the sub-committee for that.
What emerged from the Supporting LGBT Lives report was that the most vulnerable time in LGBT people's lives is predominantly the teenage period. On average, LGBT people realise their identity at 14 years of age but do not come out to anybody else until they are 21. Therefore, there is a seven-year gap between personal identification as LGBT and telling anybody else about it. This period coincides with puberty and school and it is a critical period in the social, emotional and vocational development of a young person. Prior to coming out, some of the stresses involve fear of rejection and isolation. As we have worked with young LGBT people for a long time, we are particularly concerned about this period.
School emerged as a key site where young LGBT people experience harassment or isolation. A total of 58% of respondents reported experiencing homophobic bullying in school and more than half were called abusive names relating to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Some 40% were verbally threatened by fellow students while one quarter of the overall sample were physically threatened by their school peers. An important statistic is that one in five disclosed they missed or skipped school as they felt threatened that they would be hurt if they went to school. That is particularly important in the context of educational attainment. One in three reported homophobic comments by teachers or other staff in school.
I refer to broader victimisation among the entire people and not only young people. A total of 80% of on-line respondents had been verbally abused because of their identity while 40% had been threatened with physical violence, and one in four had been violently assaulted, that is, punched, kicked or beaten because of their identity.
The key mental health findings were that 86.3% had disclosed they felt or experienced depression, 46% disclosed hazardous drinking and 27% had self-harmed. In the context of this being a youth issue, 15.5 was the average age at which a person would begin to self-harm and 85% of people who had self-harmed had done so on more than one occasion. Another key finding was that female respondents were more than twice as likely to have self-harmed than male respondents. Some 17.7% of respondents had attempted suicide and 17 was the average age at which they first attempted suicide. In the context of younger people being particularly vulnerable, more than 50% of under 25s disclosed they had seriously contemplated suicide in the past year.
I refer to the risk factors relating to suicide. For those who had attempted suicide, the identified contributing factors included experience of homophobic bullying in school, feeling of fear or rejection by family, friends and school peers, experience of being verbally or physically threatened or physically hurt because of their gay identity and experience of alienation or being regarded as different.
Mr. Allen mentioned resilience, a key factor that emerges from the report. It is not the case that all LGBT people are particulary at risk of suicide or mental health difficulties and most people are quite resilient. With regard to resilience and how it emerges in people, positive turnabouts in life, particularly the transition out of school, which is a key finding, were linked to a young person building resilience around his or her mental health. Young people's individual abilities to manage their psychological distress were also key and contact with the LGBT community, a sense of being involved with or belonging to a minority community, came out as a key protective factor. That reinforces the point about young people having access to designated support services. The final point is positive school and work experiences.
To summarise, among the most at-risk young people surveyed, 12 was the average age at which people realised they were LGBT and they began self-harming at 15.5 years and first attempted suicide at 17. On average, there is a five year gap in which they conceal their identity out of fear. At age 17, they begin to come out to others and at 21 or older social supports and resilience in mental health begin.
