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Like all young people, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth need the support of friends, family, and community. Too often, however, LGBTQ youth face rejection, harassment, and isolation. With nowhere else to go and few resources, many end up homeless, in foster care, or trapped in the juvenile justice system.
NCLR’s Youth Project advances the rights of LGBTQ youth through education, public policy, and precedent-setting casework. By bringing the issues faced by LGBTQ youth front and center, we are changing the legal landscape for all youth, and ensuring health and safety for the next generation of all young people.
read more
click here to download NCLR's Youth Project Flyer for your organization (pdf)
news & opinion
In the News
Violence Against LGBT Youth Behind Bars
07.06.10—NCLR Attorney Daniel Redman, along with Gabrielle Prisco of the Juvenile Justice Project, talk about the way the justice system fails all youth--and the reasons LGBT youth wind up in the system more often than straight teens.
watch the video on GRITtv.com
Press Release
The National Center for Lesbian Rights Stands Up for LGBT Youth With the National Day for Silence
04.16.10—Today hundreds of thousands of students nationwide will stay silent to bring attention to anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) name-calling, bullying, and harassment in their schools as part of the Day of Silence.
read more
Press Release
Groundbreaking Report Examines LGBT Youth
in Juvenile Courts
Hidden Injustice recommends extensive policy changes
to protect youth
11.12.09—Today, the Equity Project, a collaboration of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Legal Services for Children (LSC), and the National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC), announced the release of Hidden Injustice: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth in Juvenile Courts. This groundbreaking new report, based on extensive surveys and interviews of juvenile justice professionals and youth, provides the first comprehensive examination of the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth in juvenile courts nationwide.
read more
learn more about the Equity Project and Hidden Injustice
from the docket
Victory! (California)
California Education Committee, LLC, et al. v. Jack O’Connell et al.
In November 2007, anti-LGBT organizations filed a lawsuit in federal court, challenging California’s safe schools laws that, among other things, protect students from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. NCLR clients Equality California and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network got involved in the case in order to defend and protect the anti-discrimination laws.
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Victory! (Florida)
D.A. v. J.W.
Seventeen-year-old J.W. and 18-year-old D.A. had been dating for almost six months when J.W.’s mother, Ms. W., learned about their relationship. Because she disapproved of her daughter dating another woman, in December 2007, Ms. W. petitioned a Florida court to get a restraining order to prohibit any contact between the two. Ms. W. admitted in court that she was seeking a restraining order only because she did not want her daughter to have a relationship with another woman.
read more
Victory! (Florida)
Davis v. Fleming High School
NCLR represented Kelli Davis, a senior at Fleming High School, who was denied the right to appear in her senior yearbook because she wore a tuxedo rather than stereotypically feminine clothing.
read more
program highlights
NCLR Submits Comments to DOJ on Standards Developed by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC)
Since August 2005, NCLR has played a crucial role in the conversation to eliminate sexual violence in prisons. On May 10, 2010 the National Center for Lesbian Rights joined the nation’s leading LGBT civil rights groups and the nation’s leading juvenile justice reform organizations in submitting two sets of comments to Attorney General Eric Holder, urging him to adopt the proposed NPREC standards to prevent sexual abuse in prisons, jails, and youth facilities. NCLR expressed its strong support for the standards with suggested modifications to strengthen the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people from sexual abuse. Research on sexual abuse in jails, prison, juvenile facilities, and immigration detention consistently documents the heightened vulnerability of LGBTI people to sexual victimization. The sexual abuse of LGBTI people violates their basic human rights and violates the government’s constitutional obligation to provide safe and humane conditions of confinement.
Individuals who are – or are perceived to be – LGBTI make up a significant percentage of those currently in jails, prison, juvenile facilities, and immigration detention. A recent survey of juvenile facilities found that more than 12 percent of youth reported a sexual orientation other than heterosexual. A 2006 survey found 11 percent of prisoners in men’s facilities and 28 percent of prisoners in women’s facilities identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. And research on sexual abuse in these settings consistently documents the heightened vulnerability of LGBTI people to sexual victimization. For example, the Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of youth in juvenile facilities found that youth with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual were almost ten times as likely as heterosexual youth to report they had been sexually abused by other youth while in custody (12.5 percent vs. 1.3 percent). A study of sexual abuse in prison found gay and bisexual men made up 26 percent of the sexually victimized men and lesbian and bisexual women made up 38 percent of the victimized women. And other data starkly illustrate that transgender women and girls are highly vulnerable to sexual abuse, especially when housed in facilities for men or boys. A 2007 study from California found that 59 percent of transgender women in men’s prisons reported sexual abuse – 13 times the rate for non-transgender inmates. The sexual abuse of LGBTI people violates their basic human rights, violates the government’s constitutional obligation to provide safe and humane conditions of confinement, and impedes the likelihood of a successful transition back into the community. Each day that passes without these critically important standards leaves LGBTI people in confinement at substantial risk of harm.
read NCLR’s submitted comments with fellow civil rights organizations (pdf)
read NCLR’s submitted comments with the Equity Project (pdf)
NCLR’s Youth Project Director to Serve on California’s First State-Run LGBTQ Advisory Committee
The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has formed a groundbreaking 20 member advisory committee for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Children and Youth in Child Welfare. This initiative is the first of its kind in the state and is created in partnership with with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. NCLR Youth Project Director Jody Marksamer is serving on the advisory committee.
The LGBTQ Advisory Committee will assist CDSS with policy analysis in order to improve the experiences of LGBTQ children and youth in the child welfare system throughout California’s 58 counties. The Committee’s initial goals are to provide a forum to raise these important issues, develop a model that identifies best practices and tools, and educate various entities serving California’s LGBTQ youth and families in the child welfare system. Long term, the Committee will develop a more formalized plan to increase leadership throughout the state in order to integrate the needs of LGBTQ youth into current child welfare initiatives.
The Committee will meet quarterly over the next two years. John Wagner, Director of CDSS is the Committee Chairperson.
publications & downloads
Hidden Injustice: LGBT Youth in Juvenile Courts
Hidden Injustice, published by the Equity Project, a collaboration of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Legal Services for Children, and the National Juvenile Defender Center, represents the first effort to examine the experiences of LGBT youth in juvenile courts across the country. Drawing from first-hand accounts of more than 50 LGBT youth and in-depth interviews of more than 60 juvenile justice professionals, this groundbreaking report sheds light on the numerous barriers to fair and effective treatment of court-involved LGBT youth. Hidden Injustice is an invaluable resource for anyone who is committed to pursuing a fair and just juvenile delinquency system where all youth are treated with dignity, fairness, and respect.
Child Welfare League of America(CWLA) Best Practice Guidelines: Serving LGBT Youth in Out-of-Home Care (pdf)
This easy-to-use resource contains the first-ever set of comprehensive professional guidelines for how child welfare and juvenile justice professionals can best serve LGBT youth in state care. The Best Practice Guidelines for Serving LGBT Youth in Out of Home Care developed out of recommendations from the Model Standards Project, a collaboration between Legal Services for Children and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. A hard copy can be ordered online
Breaking the Silence: LGBTQ Foster Youth Tell Their Stories
The ten youth-produced digital stories included on the Breaking the Silence DVD are powerful tales of both the successes and failures of the foster care system for these ten LGBTQ youth. Each DVD also comes with a CD containing more than 25 useful and informative training tools and resources. order the DVD and Resource CD (pdf)order online!
The Legal Rights of LGBT Youth in the Juvenile Justice System Fact Sheet (pdf)
LGBT young people in the juvenile justice system have clearly-established civil rights under the U.S. Constitution as well as state and federal statutes. This user-friendly fact sheet provides an overview of these rights.
National Center for Lesbian Rights Youth Project Flyer
NCLR has been committed to protecting the rights of LGBTQ youth in schools, at home, in foster care, and in the juvenile justice system since 1993. Use this informational flyer as a resource at your organization.
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