Supportive teachers can make a world of difference for transgender students, influencing their sense of safety and academic engagement — often in the face of discrimination and bullying — according to new research from two national LGBTQ+ advocacy groups.
Students whose identities are affirmed at school report a greater sense of belonging and higher grades, and are more likely to participate fully in class, according to a report released Tuesday by GLISTEN and the Trevor Project. Students report similar outcomes when they are able to connect with LGBTQ+ peers at school, see positive representations of LGBTQ+ people in their classrooms and attend schools with inclusive policies, such as those that allow them to compete on sports teams or use facilities that best align with their gender identities.
“School environments can play a powerful role in determining whether transgender and nonbinary students thrive or struggle at school,” said Derrick Matthews, director of research science at the Trevor Project.
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Policies affecting trans students vary broadly and encompass a range of state and federal laws and directives from local school districts. In recent years, Republican-led states and the federal government have increasingly restricted the rights of trans young people, especially at school.
The report noted that more than half of trans and nonbinary students said their school had implemented at least one policy or practice that was discriminatory toward LGBTQ+ students, and roughly 60 percent said they had experienced at least one negative event at school. Of that number, 49 percent reported verbal harassment related to their LGBTQ+ identity, and 27 percent said they were barred from dressing in accordance with their gender.
Twenty-five percent of students said they missed 16 or more days of school last year, and 9 percent said they were mistreated so badly that they left their school altogether.
The Trevor Project’s survey, conducted anonymously online between March and October of last year, included responses from more than 3,700 transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive 13- to 24-year-olds. Nearly 2,000 trans middle and high school students responded to GLISTEN’s 2025 National School Climate Survey, administered between April and October 2024.
“Our findings illuminate a number of serious challenges these students face,” Matthews said. “However, these data also provide us with clear and impactful actions that teachers and school officials can take to set transgender and nonbinary students up for success.”
Asking about and affirming a student’s name and pronouns, teaching and talking about LGBTQ+ topics and supporting student-led LGBTQ+ groups like Gender and Sexuality Alliances can make trans students feel substantially safer at school, according to the report. But students also want their teachers to take greater action, said Shweta Moorthy, director of research and best practices at GLISTEN.
“There are many students in our survey saying that there’s sort of this, like, ‘negative neutrality’ type of thing happening, where while they aren’t hearing a lot of negative comments from educators, they aren’t hearing a lot of positive comments from educators either,” she said. “There is a clarion call in our research from students for their educators to show up in much more proactive and affirming ways. Safety isn’t just the absence of harm. It isn’t just the absence of bullying and the absence of discrimination.”
