On July 14, 2021, a two-year research study called "Bullying in Schools and LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health: Relations with Voting for Trump" was published by Washington State University (WSU). The study showed how Washington students who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community face greater rates of bullying in conservative voting districts than in liberal voting districts.

The researchers obtained and analyzed information from the 2018 Washington State Healthy Youth Survey (HYS), an annual, self-reported survey that gathers information regarding student health in the state. The HYS contained responses from approximately 50,000 students in grades 8 through 12, and about 20% of students in the survey identified as LGBTQ+. In total, 227 out of the 295 Washington school districts were represented in the survey, with an average of 345 students per district.

For the WSU study, researchers were able to identify school districts of each student and pair them with the percentage of those in their district that voted for Trump.

"It was possibly the most fun study that I've been a part of," said co-author Paul Kwon, PhD, a professor at WSU. He also mentioned how this was co-author Steven Hobaica's first dissertation, and described how Hobaica was initially interested in looking at the geographical differences between LGBTQ+ students. They chose to swap the geographical approach for a political one: "I thought that might be a more critical variable than just geography," explained Kwon.

What the study shows
In Washington state, LGBTQ+ students are at higher risk for psychological distress, such as anxiety, depression, and suicidality, particularly in areas that favored Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The study also shows that teachers in more conservative voting districts were less inclined to intervene when bullying occurred, according to the HYS respondents.

What's even more interesting? When school staff "almost always" intervened in instances of bullying, LGBTQ+ students reported bullying rates that were consistent with non-LGBTQ+ students.

According to Kwon, "rates of bullying drop to what you see in liberal districts" when teachers step in. This is because students who are caught in the act of bullying are more likely to face consequences and less likely to repeat the offense.

"Those teachers become so beneficial, because they become trusted adults in the school for LGBTQ+ students to go to when they're struggling," Kwon added.

He also described how teachers in conservative voting districts weren't necessarily ignoring instances of LGBTQ+ bullying, but that it could perhaps be that the they lacked a strong relationship with their students, and didn't necessarily understand when bullying was taking place.

Regardless, when a zero-tolerance environment is created for specific behavior, that behavior begins to occur less and less.

Some thoughts on causation
Since the 2016 presidential election — when a portion of Americans thought it would be wise to elect a bully into office, unsurprisingly, the rates of overall bullying increased: general bullying in schools, the bullying of immigrant students, bullying related to one's ethnicity, and bullying for identifying as LGBTQ+.

Furthermore, Trump helped foster anti-LGBTQ+ environments by speaking out about and attempting to normalize his anti-LGBTQ+ agenda, and more often than not, anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice is heavily intertwined with political ideology and beliefs.

Generally speaking, conservative ideology promotes gender norms, while liberal ideology challenges these norms. A reason as to why LGBTQ+ students face higher rates of bullying in more conservative districts could be because these regions are attempting to preserve "American traditions."

Although those that participated in the study were not old enough to vote in the 2016 election, these conservative ideologies "[have] to be passed down somehow, we think," said Kwon.

The impact of bullying on LGBTQ+ students
No student should be forced to spend eight hours a day in a facility where they feel unsafe or threatened, yet many do.Bullying can have a negative impact on one's personal relationships. It can cause avoidant behaviors, such as evading gender-segregated bathrooms or locker rooms. It can even cause a student to skip school and therefore led to a lower GPA. These experiences can shape a person's identity, and they can even cause them to struggle with their identity.

Bullying also causes psychological difficulties, such as feelings of worthlessness, anxiety, depression, and suicidality

"The suicide thing is so critical, because bullying increased suicidal thinking, suicidal planning, and suicidal attempts. And anyone who filled out the survey is a survivor because of those suicidal attempts. What about those who didn't take the study because they did commit suicide?" Kwon asked.

"We can logically conclude that there are some victims that didn't have the privilege of filling out the survey because of what they endured," stated Kwon.

In 2018, the Human Rights Campaign led a study focused on LGBTQ+ youth (not all in Washington), in which 77% of respondents reported feeling depressed, and 70% reported feelings of insignificance and hopelessness within the previous week. Although not focused on bullying directly, this study shows the critical state of LGBTQ+ youth's mental health.

What we don't know
While Hobaica and Kwon uncovered information relating greater rates of bullying of LGBTQ+ youth to conservative voting districts, a crucial aspect has yet to be determined: How much of that bullying goes home with them, even after they exit the classroom?

We live in the age of technology, where most kids own a cell phone. But what we have yet to discover is how much bullying is occurring online. How late at night are our youth being harassed? Is online bullying hitting LGBTQ+ students harder than in-person bullying?

Another area of this study where data is missing concerns the underrepresentation of conservative school districts, which are less inclined to report data regarding LGBTQ+ identity. This means there could possibly be higher rates of LGBTQ+ bullying than this study found.

How can schools be made a safe space for every student?
"No matter what your politics are, what are you doing to stand up for human rights instead of harming human people?" inquired Kwon, who suggested that "every school should have comprehensive training on what to do when there is bullying based on sexual or gender minority status, [which] requires a different response than regular bullying."

In addition to training school staff, the study mentions posting anti-bullying and LGBTQ+-ally flyers in buildings. Other initiatives include creating gender-affirming spaces for Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSAs) and inclusive LGBTQ+ organizations.

The study also suggests discussing anti-bullying policies at the beginning of the school year, and extending the legal definition of bullying so that all students are protected. Hiring LGBTQ+ staff is also beneficial.

"It's a wakeup call that our politics and our policies make a big difference and [are] really a matter of life or death. I think everyone should be aware of the kinds of policies that are a direct threat to LGBTQ people, and that includes policies that are more prevalent in conservative politics," stated Kwon.

To read "Bullying in Schools and LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health: Relations with Voting for Trump," visit https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/asap.12258.