Schools have become the battleground for political ideologies, especially for youth who either are assumed to be and/or identify as a sexual and/or gender minority.

On the continent and even on our own islands, we have seen vitriol from various political and community leaders regarding what it means to support, or not, our LGBTQ+ youth.

As members of the board of directors of the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation — an organization dedicated to uplifting and empowering the LGBTQ+ community and the organizers of the annual Honolulu Pride in October — we have seen and experienced firsthand what it means to be othered in an environment that should have protected us, whether in school, at home, or at work.

And at the end of the day, no one should be disempowered by political ideologies of dehumanization; rather, we need to empower all of our youth, regardless of their sexuality or gender expression and identity.

Unfortunately, many from across the country feign outrage over something as innocuous as a pride flag in school, an LGBTQ-affirming student club, or even the use of a non-binary pronoun. While it may seem insignificant, for LGBTQ youth the practice of such bigotry and prejudice becomes a matter of life or death.

Quite literally. According to the 2018 Hawaii Sexual and Gender Minority Report, conducted by the Hawaii Department of Health and in collaboration with community partners and nonprofits, transgender youth in our state are four times more likely than cisgender youth — that is, non-trans youth — to skip school because they felt unsafe.

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are two times more likely than heterosexual youth to also skip school for the same reason. Feeling unsafe as gender non-conforming youth makes sense when the data shows that 40% of transgender youth have been bullied either at school or electronically.

It should be unsurprising then, that transgender youth are seven times more likely than cisgender to attempt suicide. In a similar vein, gay, lesbian and bisexual youth are four times more likely to commit suicide than their heterosexual counterparts.

In fact, the year before the report was published, half of transgender youth in our state attempted suicide one or more times.

These statistics, while alarming, only tell part of the story of what our sexual and gender minority youth face. Outside of school, and according to the 2018 Street Youth Study, more than 17% of houseless and runway youth in Hawaii are LGBTQ+.

That number is even more depressing on the continent. According to the 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, 28% of LGBTQ+ youth experienced houselessness or housing instability at some point in their lives.

And for those who experience housing instability, they are two to four times more likely to experience depression, anxiety, and suicide.

What sets us apart from the kinds of conversations we read about on the continent, is that there is a direct correlation with affirming our LGBTQ+ youth, especially our Pacific Islander youth, and cultural integrity.

Historically, Kanaka and other Indigenous people from the Pacific did not other those outside of the binary, but instead considered them to be integral to the fabric of the community and family.

Today, as Indigenous people begin to work through the process of decolonization, part of those efforts necessarily involve empowering our youth to find ways to uplift themselves and assisting them with recognizing their importance in the family, school, home, and community.

Youth empowerment can come in many different forms. It can be a teacher’s use of a student’s chosen name, allowing youth to bring a date of their choosing, regardless of gender, to school dances, or a principal’s decision to hang a pride flag on campus.

For the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation, it is the reason why we created the Pride365 initiative, an endeavor to ensure that pride celebrations happen year round. This has included, for example, the Pride Pā‘ina Lā ‘Ohana event at Bishop Museum, Rainbow Town Halls, and the Kapaemāhū Ceremony.

And so, if you are a school, campus, or youth related organization, we encourage you to be active and open in your support of LGBTQ+ youth. These gestures of acceptance and kindness, both big and small, save lives.

The Hawaii LGBT Legacy FoundationBoard of Directors: Ha‘aheo Zablan, Ian F. Tapu, Sami L.A. Akuna, Lisa Martin, Chad Yamamoto, Tatiana Kalani‘ōpua Young, Rick Ramirez, Tori Richards, Gary Permenter, Sandy Harjo-Livingston, Jeffrey Eslinger, Andrew Ogata, Zabrina Zablan-Duvauchelle and Anthone Sanchez.