The Youth19 survey of close to 8000 secondary school students found that while some progress is being made, and about half of the rainbow students in the study are coping well, some - especially transgender and gender diverse young people - are struggling.

University of Auckland education and social work senior lecturer John Fenaughty said that was evident in their findings around mental health.

"The increased amounts of mistreatment and stress, particularly for some transgender and diverse gender young people, are known drivers that underpin the increased rates of mental health challenges we are seeing," he said. Read more

"Despite groups like Family Planning and Rainbow Youth being challenged by US psychiatrist Dr Miriam Grossman to a debate last week to defend their websites and pamphlets targeted at young people, they ran for cover. They also appeared to take down one of the offending websites during Dr Grossman's visit," says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

Family First is especially concerned about websites such as curious.org.nz, theword.org.nz, getiton.co.nz and a number of Family Planning pamphlets.

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However the Rainbow Youth organisation's education co- ordinator stands by the presentations, saying its education package has been evaluated and is backed up by research.

Earlier this year Rainbow Youth presented two one-hour sessions to the 15-year-old's class. Auckland-based Rainbow Youth provides "support, information, advocacy and education for queer young people" and has been delivering education workshops for more than 10 years.

One presentation was about gender and sexual identity and the other addressed issues such as homophobia and bullying.

The teenage boy said two of the presenters introduced themselves to the class as lesbians, one who was attracted to transsexual girls, while the third said he had been a woman attracted to women but became a man "with a vagina".

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