Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender variant (LGBT) youth enter the child welfare system in a variety of ways. Some are rejected by their birth families as a result of their orientation or gender variance. Others come into care for reasons indirectly associated with their identity (e.g. running away, truancy or fighting due to harassment). A third group comes into care for abuse or neglect unrelated to their identities, but later 'come out' as LGB or T once in care (Mallon, 2002). However they come into care, sexual and gender minority youth are often subject to additional victimization once in the 'system', including harassment by peers and staff, multiple placement disruptions, and violence. For far too many of these youth, inadequate permanency planning leads to a total loss of services as they age out of care.

So what's a system to do? Although there are no simple answers, one promising direction is to strengthen the child welfare focus on family preservation and support for sexual and gender minority youth. 

Traditionally in child welfare systems, once a youth's family has rejected him or her due to sexual or gender identity, the family is no longer seen as a resource in permanency planning. As a result, social workers tend to look to long term foster care, congregate care and independent living, each of which tend to have unique challenges for LGBT youth as mentioned above.  They need to look closer to home.

A study conducted by the Family Acceptance Project ^TM, a program of the Cesar Chavez Institute at San Francisco State University, demonstrates the profound impact that family acceptance has on LGBT youth. Ryan (2009) found that when families are rejecting, LGBT youth are at higher risk for a host of risk factors (e.g. suicidality attempts and ideations, substance abuse, homelessness, sexual acting out, violence, and truancy). At the same time, the outcomes for youth with families who are ambivalent but not patently rejecting were significantly more positive than those of youth whose families are completely rejecting. The implication is that it isn't necessary for families to transform themselves in order to be sources of support for their LGBT youth. It suggests that providers should wrap support services around families as children come out with the goal of helping youth stay in their homes. Whenever possible permanency plans should continue to include birth families, even if the family is initially rejecting. Ryan's (2009) research finds that families (regardless of initial response) often become more accepting over time.

Ryan's (2009) research suggests emphatically that it is critical for to concentrate on families of origin, and ask how we can support these families in keeping their child home as they negotiate their joint (youth and family) coming out process. 

True Colors' Safe Harbors project, a collaboration True Colors, the Connecticut State Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the Connecticut Association of Foster and Adoptive Parents (CAFAP) uses and suggests the following strategies:

• Explore creative ways to engage families to prevent removal, and if necessary, to support reunification using community strengths such as kinship networks, extended family outreach, community social activities at which families can get together for food and conversation, etc. We have begun using social networking programs such as MySpace and Facebook.
• Provide social workers with LGBT affirming family preservation and support skills. We have trained over 1,000 social workers through the Safe Harbors project. Training should consist of both values clarification (helping workers differentiate between their own personal values and their professional responsibilities) and skill building components to help social workers enhance existing family preservation skills around issues of orientation and gender.
• Develop additional open and affirming short term housing options for youth and young adults needing care in the interim. One reason, in fact, for the multiple placements that LGBT youth experience is conflict between the foster parent's religious beliefs and the child's identity as LGBT.  So, we created a training module for Foster Parents to help them serve as a resource.  In addition, the Safe Harbors project actively recruits foster families from the LGBT and affirming communities. Although it isn't a given that an LGBT child will flourish in an LGBT household, these families can offer safe, loving and affirming care for teens, even as they begin to age out of the system.

S*, by the way, who we introduced earlier? She has been living as a foster child with the two women who became her mentors two years ago. She has been there just under a year - her longest and most stable placement since she came into care. And we have hope that the ally we have just identified in her family of origin will make inroads in helping her parents move from further along the continuum from rejection to acceptance of their child.

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