More than two-thirds of Canadian high school students who identify themselves as homosexual, bisexual or transgendered said they felt unsafe at school, according to survey results published Monday.

About 1,200 students participated in the nationwide survey on homophobia and transphobia conducted by the gay-rights lobby group Egale Canada. The group says the survey is the first of its kind.

Participants included those who identified themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, two-spirited, queer or questioning, also known as LGBTQ, as well as straight. Two-spirited refers to an aboriginal belief in the existence of a male-female gender.

One-quarter of LGBTQ respondents reported physical threats because of their sexual orientation, while over half said they'd been verbally harassed.

Forty-one per cent of LGBTQ participants reported sexual harassment, compared to 19 per cent of straight students.

"We may have human rights for LGBTQ people in Canada, but you'd never know it based on these results," said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada.

She said the issue largely stems from a lack of education.

"There are no mandatory courses. There's no issue around sensitivity training so the teachers, we are finding, don't have the resources that they need to address this issue," she said in St. John's over the weekend.

Other findings by the survey include:

  • More than one-third of LGBTQ respondents have skipped school because they felt unsafe at the building or on their way there, compared to one-eighth of straight participants.
  • Almost half of LGBTQ participants reported having had mean rumours spread about them at school.
  • Close to a third of LGBTQ respondents said the rumours were spread about them on the internet or through text messages.

Those who took part in the survey included students living in urban centres, small towns, reserves, rural areas and Armed Forces bases.

The online survey made headlines earlier this year when three Catholic boards in Toronto, Guelph, Ont., and Alberta declined to take part in it. Last December, Egale approached a number of school boards across the country to help distribute the survey to students from Grade 8 to Grade 12.