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Report Spotlights Challenges Facing LGBTQ Youth In Mass.

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A new report finds that while the LGBTQ population in Massachusetts is growing, the community still faces many challenges.

The report, by the Boston Foundation and the Fenway Institute, found LGBTQ people experience higher rates of depression, discrimination and homelessness than their heterosexual peers.

The Fenway Institute's Sean Cahill, one of the report's authors, joined us on Morning Edition. You can listen to our interview above, and here are three key findings and charts from the report:

1. Among states, Massachusetts has the second-highest share of its population that identifies as LGBT (behind Vermont), and young people are more likely than older cohorts to identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or something else:

(Courtesy of the Boston Foundation)
(Courtesy of the Boston Foundation)

2. The report says gay high schoolers are much more likely to experience homelessness than their heterosexual peers. According to data from last decade, for boys, it's six times as much, and for girls, it's 10 times as much:

(Courtesy of the Boston Foundation)
(Courtesy of the Boston Foundation)

3. LGBT people are more likely to have been diagnosed with depression than non-LGBT people. And a 2015 survey found almost half of LGB youth in Massachusetts have considered suicide:

(Courtesy of the Boston Foundation)
(Courtesy of the Boston Foundation)

This article was originally published on May 24, 2018.

This segment aired on May 24, 2018.

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