If you are struggling with feelings that you are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, you are not alone. Millions of us have experienced the same struggle. Having this struggle and attending a religious school is even more difficult.

Unfortunately, most countries in our world, legally allow religious schools to do whatever they want to anyone for anyone as long as they have a religious reason to back up what they have done. But just because someone has the right to do something, doesn't necessarily make it right.

If you are attending a religious school and have been abused, terrorized, disciplined or expelled because your school leaders think or know that you are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, there is something you can do. Talking publicly about what has happened to you is probably the hardest thing and yet the most important thing you can do. All around you there are other students just like you.

If you are able to safely share what has happened or is happening to you at your religious school, we are here to listen and offer some resources. The first step is to review our confidentiality page. This may help you keep your visit to our site as confidential as possible. Another recommended step is to open a free email account from hotmail.com, yahoo.com or gmail.com. It is likely that there may be students following the "honor code" at your school who would be more than happy to do what they think is the right thing and turn you in. This applies to your friends, resident assistants, teachers and administrators.

Here, you can fill out an incident report. This can be for something that happened to you or someone else at your school. All of the information you provide to us is 100% confidential. Unless you choose to let them know, nothing you put in this report will be told to anyone from your life. This is why it's a good idea to open that other email account as suggested.

The more information you provide to us the better. After you submit your report, someone from HeartStrong will get in touch with you.

IMPORTANT: The only email address someone from HeartStrong will use to contact you is heartstrong@heartstrong.org If someone contacts you pretending to be us and the email is not coming from that address, DO NOT RESPOND to it. Chances are good that it is someone who is NOT your friend and trying to trick you.

We look forward to hearing from you. Remember, you are not alone. And, most of all, there is peace and happiness in life. We can help you reach for it.

FOR HEARTSTRONG FRIENDS

NEWSLETTER

HS FACTS

HS NETWORK

HS & RELIGION

WHY ARE THERE GLBT STUDENTS @ RELIGIOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS?

WHO HS REACHES

CORPORATE MATCHING

PLANNED GIVING & HEARTSTRONG

SUGGESTED POLICY LANGUAGE FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

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