Today is National Gay-Straight Alliance Day, a day meant to recognize the work gay-straight alliances do in schools across the country to combat bullying, homophobia and transphobia.

Thousands of students now attend colleges and high schools which have gay-straight alliance groups. These groups have become more prominent in recent years, and many have formed in response to instances of bullying or LGBT youth suicide.

LGBT students who attend schools with a GSA are much less likely to suffer bullying or hate speech than LGBT students who do not, according to the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

Here are some notable numbers from the Iowa Pride Network, the organization behind National GSA Day, which highlight the importance of GSA's in schools. In schools with a GSA, students are:

• 25% are less likely to be verbally harassed because of their gender
• 23% less likely to skip class and 15% are less likely to not attend school because of feeling uncomfortable or unsafe
• 23% less likely to be physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation
• 21% more likely to report never having been sexually harassed at school
• 12% less likely to be physically harassed or assaulted because of their gender expression
• 10% less likely to be verbally or physically harassed because of their sexual orientation or gender expression and 10% more likely to report never being cyber-bullied because of their sexual orientation or gender expression

 Top photo via http://gsaday.org/