Fewer than half of transgender, nonbinary, gay, lesbian, and bisexual Colorado youth said they feel like they belong at their school, according to a biennial health survey. More than a quarter of transgender youth who took the survey reported attempting suicide in the previous year.

Those are some of the alarming findings of the Healthy Kids Colorado survey, which is administered every two years. Local LGBTQ+ educators and advocacy organizations said it’s important that schools, teachers, parents, and lawmakers pay attention.

“As dark as this data is, we have an ability to make a change,” said Joyce Giuhat, a queer educator who teaches middle and high school math at a charter school in Federal Heights.

“It would be almost inhuman to not have some sort of reaction to youth that are actively making plans to commit suicide or not showing up to school because they don’t feel safe,” said Libby Goertz, the director of an early childhood education center in Denver. Goertz, who is a lesbian, co-hosts a podcast with Giuhat called Lesbi-Educated: Teaching Out of the Closet.

“People have to see it to feel some sort of push to make change,” Goertz said.

In the fall of 2021, 106,799 students at 340 public middle and high schools across the state took the Healthy Kids Colorado survey administered by researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The results, which are meant to provide a snapshot of what Colorado youth are experiencing, were released last week.

The anonymous survey asks students about their mental health, drug and alcohol use, and sexual activity. It also asks about bullying, safety, and whether they’ve experienced racism. The 2021 survey included more expansive response options for questions about race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity. That allowed researchers to parse the data in more detailed ways, providing a clearer picture of the health of different groups of students.