fbpx
our work youth foster care.625

Foster Care

Photo Courtesy Lambda Legal

LGBTQ youth constitute about 20% of youth in foster care—over twice their numbers in the general population. The trauma that leads to their separation from their families and communities is exacerbated when LGBTQ foster youth languish in multiple institutional settings in which they are unsafe, unseen and unsupported. NCLR advocates for child welfare policies that promote the safety and well-being of LGBTQ youth by preventing their unnecessary entry into foster care, reunifying them with their families whenever possible and ensuring that they receive the love and support that all youth need to thrive.

Advocacy

Legislation & Policy

upEND Movement

Nationwide

NCLR supports the upEND movement to end the current child welfare system and replace it with a system that focuses on keeping children safe with their families, rather than on separating and regulating families of color. The existing child welfare system disproportionately surveils and separates Black, Native, and LGBTQ families, as well as families whose members have disabilities, causing deep and lasting harm to children and families. Racism is so deeply rooted in child welfare systems’ history, policies, and practices that they are not easily modified or revised. Rather, the system as we know it has to be ended in order to ensure racial equity. The upEND movement was begun by the Center for the Study of Social Policy.

More

Cases & Advocacy

Fulton v. City of Philadelphia

Pennsylvania, Nationwide

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia that the City of Philadelphia violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by failing to give Catholic Social Services (CSS) an exemption from the nondiscrimination provision in city contracts, even though the contract authorized exemptions and the City had granted exemptions to other providers.

More

Resources

Press Release

CA First to Guarantee Gender-Affirming Healthcare for Trans Foster Youth

September 18, 2018. California Governor Jerry Brown signed landmark transgender rights legislation into law last week, guaranteeing the right of California’s foster youth to access gender-affirming healthcare services. Authored by California State Assemblymember Todd Gloria, AB 2119 is the first bill of its kind in the nation.

“Every young person in foster care deserves, and is entitled to, medically necessary health care. The harms caused by the denial or delay of medically necessary care are particularly acute for transgender and gender non-conforming children and youth, who often encounter barriers to receiving the care they need to ensure their health, safety, and well-being,” said Shannan Wilber, Youth Policy Director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

More

Share This