To our knowledge, only one prior study—published by a team of RAND researchers as a working paper in January—attempts to estimate the share of K-12 teachers who identify as LGBTQ+ using nationally representative data. The authors concluded that LGBTQ+ individuals are less likely than non-LGBTQ+ people to work as K-12 teachers; though this contradicts the correlational relationships found in other research studies described above. The study’s drawback, though, is its reliance on two different national surveys that either reliably identified sexual orientation or occupation, but not both simultaneously.
Cited publication