Hatzenbuehler ML, McKetta S, Kim R, et al. - Among youth, homophobic bullying—which is motivated by actual or perceived sexual orientation—is a common experience and is more strongly linked with adverse outcomes when compared with bullying unrelated to bias. Findings from this study suggest that homophobic bullying may be reduced with litigation, depending on the outcome of the case.

• A total of 1,448,778 students in 499 California high schools were included in this quasi-experimental study.

• For cases where the plaintiff (student) secured a remedy (i.e., monetary and/or injunctive relief) through settlement or court decision, schools experiencing litigation had a 23% decrease in homophobic bullying when compared with schools that did not experience litigation; this effect size was comparable to that of resource-intensive school-based bullying interventions.