Anti-gay bullying begins very early in U.S. schools with gender nonconforming students and kids with gay parents vulnerable targets, according to a report released today (18 January) by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

The report, Playgrounds and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States, describes gender nonconforming students as boys who sometimes think, act or look like a girl or girls who sometimes think, act or look like a boy.

'Over the past few years, there has been an increase in research on bullying in schools, including elementary schools,' says GLSEN Senior Director of Research & Strategic Initiatives Dr. Joseph Kosciw. 'However, our report is one of the few that examines bias-based bullying at the elementary school level and the first to examine incidence of homophobic remarks and the negative experiences of children who do not conform to societal standards in their gender expression from a national vantage point.'

The report is based on national surveys of 1,065 elementary school students in 3rd to 6th grade and 1,099 elementary school teachers of K-6th grade. It examines students' and teachers' experiences with biased remarks and bullying, and their attitudes about gender expression and family diversity.

The study found that 75 percent of the students reported that students at their school are called names, made fun of or bullied with at least some regularity. Most commonly this is because of students' looks or body size (67 percent), followed by not being good at sports (37 percent), how well they do at schoolwork (26 percent), not conforming to traditional gender norms/roles (23 percent) or because other people think they're gay (21 percent).

Teachers are aware of the bullying with less than half of those surveyed believing that a gender nonconforming student would feel comfortable at their school.

Gay families are clearly a topic not discussed in the homes of most students. A mere 18 percent of the students surveyed have learned about families that have two dads or two moms.

Teacher preparedness is also an issue, the study shows. Less than half of teachers indicated that they feel comfortable responding to questions from their students about gay, lesbian or bisexual people. Just 41 percent said they felt comfortable responding to questions from their students about transgender people.

This is not surprising since just 37 percent of the teachers said they have ever received specific professional development on gender issues and only 23 percent have ever received training on families with LGBT parents.