The teenage years are tough enough for most kids. Now, imagine struggling with sexuality. Life can be very tough for gay teens.

August 18th this year, a gay Michigan teen was beaten near his home. In 2007, a Colorado gay teen was attacked by six boys while walking home from school. This list goes on and on. It's the daily battle gay teens fight for simply being themselves.

High school is a time when teens develop feelings of attraction. Between 5 and 10 percent of them will realize they're homosexual. But often peer pressure, hate, discrimination and stigmas push gay teens deeper into the shadows.

"I was worried I would lose a lot of friends over it. I was worried my parents wouldn't understand... it was a double life," said Josh Bourgeois.

In college now, Bourgeois came out in high school after six years of keeping his homosexuality a deep secret.

"I went to school on a military base and a lot of the kids there had already been so inundated in the climate of gay bashing that by fifth grade kids were using gay as an insult," said Bourgeois.

The story's similar for Courtney Dusing who grew up in Iowa and came out at age 16.

"People would tell me you're going to hell or you're sinning and here's why," said Dusing. "One time [my girlfriend and I] were walking down the street, not even holding hands and someone yelled fag out the window," said Dusing.

Studies show nearly every gay teens hear anti-gay slurs. In recent years, Lincoln Schools have worked hard to accommodate gay students. Lincoln High has a gay student club.

"I think if we can talk about things we can deal with just about anything," said Lincoln High Principal Mike Wortman. "When there's fear of talking about it or a fear that if you talk about it it's going to promote it or escalate it or increase it, I think that's not necessarily a healthy attitude to have."

While schools are increasingly more accepting there's still plenty for gay teens to worry about, including violence.

"I would like to say they have nothing to fear," said Wortman. "But I'm not in that situation, and maybe."

"I was the editor of our high school newspaper and one of our staffers wrote a pro gay marriage opinion article for the paper. We had a member of my graduating class who threatened that staff member," said Dusing. "It can be scary just to walk down the street."

Her school put a restraining order against that student's interaction with several of the student newspaper staff.

However, attitudes toward gay students are changing.

"Students who accept that they're gay are encouraged by more administrative figures to be OK with that," said Bourgeois.

Bourgeois and Dusing both say in a country founded on freedom they hope someday tolerance will prevail.

"If people realize we are just people... it's fine if you think I'm sinning," said Dusing. "I just don't understand how we could hurt others or hurt the rest of the population by being who we are and loving who we want."

According to the FBI, nearly 16 percent of all hate crimes are from sexual orientation bias. And, government studies say gay teens are two to three times more likely to commit suicide that straight teens.