It is undeniable that being gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender is easier today than at any point in history. Despite the greater representations in the media and the availability of online resources, being an LGBT youth is still hard, sometimes even dangerous. This is especially true for the LGBT youth in foster care.

Basics About Foster Care[1]
Foster care is a system where the state, for various reasons takes legal custody of a child, for what will theoretically be a temporary time, but the child still ‘legally’ belongs to the parents.[2] There are many problems that plague the foster care system nationally. Despite the fact that foster care is envisioned as a temporary solution to provide short-term care for children while their parents address the issues that have made them temporarily unable to care for their children, children in foster care remain in the system for years and average three different placements.[3]

There are more than 500,000 children in foster care nationally.[4] In Washington state, the there were almost ten thousand children in out-of-home care during 2006.[5] The majority of children in foster care are from poor families, and they are disproportionately African-American. [6] There is also a shortage of individuals who are willing to become foster parents, and high turnover among those who administer state programs.[7] Of those who are foster care parents, a disproportionate number are highly religious, and often their religious convictions hold that LGBT people are immoral or engaging in sinful behaviors.

Children enter foster care for various reason, but many LGBT youth enter foster care because of their sexual or gender identity. For example, a 1989 study found that 26% of LGBT youth were forced to leave their families of origin because of conflicts with their parents regarding their sexual orientation or gender identity.[8] LGBT youth represent at least 5 to 10% of the adolescents in the foster care system.[9] When they enter the foster care system, there are often subjected to continued discrimination, harassment, and abuse. This helps explain why the LGBT homeless population is so large, specifically in Seattle 40% of homeless youth are estimated to be lesbian or gay.[10]

This wiki links related to foster care hope to provide information on the unique issues faced by LGBT youth and provides information about the laws and possible legal approaches to addressing the needs of GLBT youth in the foster care system. In addition, we have provided resources such as a listing of law reviews many with a summary of the law review, that discuss the issue of foster care and LGBT youth. There is also a link to organizations that provide information and resources for LGBT youth and foster care parents.


LGBT Foster Care Issues
One of the problems with the foster care system is that many of the organizations are faith-based organizations and many of the parents are highly religious.[11] These organizations have specific opinions about homosexuality. The agencies, through their employees, end up imposing those views on the children, and in the employees' minds, rightfully so.

Like LGBT adolescents not in foster care, youth face who are labeled by their peers as LGBT face harassment. LGBT youth experience:

• Systematic patterns of abuse, including taunting from staff, inappropriate “conversion” therapies, and tolerance for slurs, violence, and sexual harassment in the foster care setting, with transgender youth facing a particular risk of discrimination, harassment, and violence.[16]
  

• Harassment in the form of name calling, bullying, and more.[12]
• The possibility of losing friends.
• Many LGBT youth face the fear of losing their family and, some of the LGBT youth in foster care are there because of their families reaction their sexuality.[13] They must then re-live the re-live this fear of the impact of disclosing their sexuality or gender identity will have in every new placement.[14]
• LGBT Youth are at a higher risk for dropping out of school, suicide, substance abuse, violence, HIV, homelessness, and prostitution.[15]
• LGBT youth reported systematic patterns of abuse, including taunting from staff, inappropriate “conversion” therapies, and tolerance for slurs, violence, and sexual harassment in the foster care setting, with transgender youth facing a particular risk of discrimination, harassment, and violence.[16]
  

School can be particularly hard for youth perceived to be LGBT, many students suffering from a form of post-traumatic stress syndrome that affects schoolwork.[17] Often youth face years of indignity until they are finally able to drop-out. Even those not perceived to be LGBT suffer, from witnessing or participating in harassment of other LGBT peers.

Within the Child Welfare System LGBT youth also face many issues specific to their (perceived or self-identified) sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBT youth come in the foster care system come from all races, economic levels, religions, and communities.[18] Some LGBT youth are in the foster care because of parental rejection.[19] Regardless of the reason a youth enters the foster care system, many may feel compelled to keep their sexual or gender identity a secret out of fear of homophobic and fearful reactions.[20]

Group homes also create particular problems for trans adolescents as many are segregated by gender and there is a lack of understanding or sensitivity for trans individuals. LGBT youth in group homes face many of the same harassment issues that LGBT youth face in school, although to a heightened degree due to the heightened level of vulnerability one experiences where the live (i.e., being harassed and bullied in the middle of the night, in the shower, and other places where one would otherwise expect to have a heightened level of privacy and safety) at the hands of their peers or the staff.

It is interesting to note that California is the first, and as of April 2008, the only state to have passed a Foster Care Nondiscrimination Act, which went into effect on January 1, 2004.[21] The Act provides that LGBTQ foster children, foster parents, and service providers have right to equal access to all services, placement, care, treatment, and benefits of the foster care system, without discrimination or harassment on the basis of (among other things) sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV status.[22] The Act also requires training for group home administrators, foster parents, and department licensing person on the right of LGBTQ foster children to have fair and equal access to all available services without harassment or discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.[23]


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