Burden of homelessness among sexual orientation minority adolescents: A neglected social justice issue

Evidence of greater risk of homelessness among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents compared to heterosexual adolescents comes from study samples comprised of homeless youth. The extent that such findings can be generalized to representative samples of adolescents is unknown. We used data from the 2005 and 2007 Massachusetts (MA) Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a representative study of MA high school students (grades 9-12), to compare risk of current homelessness among adolescents reporting a minority sexual orientation to exclusively heterosexual adolescents. Among males, prevalence of homelessness was higher among gay (23.9%; Adj. OR=7.7), bisexual (21.8%, Adj. OR=7.8), heterosexual with histories of same-sex partners (15.6%, Adj. OR=4.5), and unsure of sexual orientation (31.1%, Adj. OR=8.6) students compared to exclusively heterosexual (3.8%) students. Similarly among females, prevalence of homelessness was higher among lesbian (26.3%; Adj. OR=13.0), bisexual (13.5%, Adj. OR=6.0), heterosexual with histories of same-sex partners (10.1%, Adj. OR=4.7), and unsure of sexual orientation (9.2%, Adj. OR=3.9) students compared to exclusively heterosexual (2.6%) students. Furthermore, among the subset of youth who were homeless, a larger percentage of lesbian/gay (73.2%), bisexual (81.1%), heterosexual with histories of same-sex partners (69.6%), and unsure of sexual orientation (75.1%) students were living separately from their parents than exclusively heterosexual (57.8%) students (P<.05). Findings suggest that sexual orientation disparities in adolescent homelessness are influenced by factors situated within family relationships. Rejection and victimization within the family related to minority sexual orientation status are likely contributors to these disparities.