In a historic ruling, the Supreme Court of Namibia has ruled that the government is required to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally in other nations between citizens and foreign nationals.
In a 4-1 vote, the judges overturned a previous ruling from the country’s High Court that said these marriages could not be acknowledged.
The litigants spoke with LGBTQ Nation about their fight for equal rights.
“This Court accordingly found that the approach of the Ministry to exclude spouses, including the appellants, in a validly concluded same-sex marriage… infringes both the interrelated rights to dignity and equality of the appellants,” stated the ruling.
The lawsuit was brought by a Namibian woman who married a German woman, as well as a Namibian man who married a South African man (South Africa is the only African country where same-sex marriage is legal). The non-Namibian spouses could not obtain resident rights in the country, so the couples sued.
Homosexuality remains illegal in the Christian-majority nation, though according to Africa News, the 1927 sodomy law is almost never enforced.
“Today’s verdict and outcome clearly indicates that Namibia is moving towards recognizing diversity in this country irrespective of people’s political or social positioning,” LGBTQ+ rights activist Linda Baumann told Reuters.
“Today after a six-year battle, we finally won, and the court has ruled that the Ministry of Home Affairs has to recognize these marriages by foreign spouses to Namibian spouses,” Carli Schickerling, a lawyer who represented the couples, told VOA.
Baumann also spoke with VOA and cautioned that there are so many more rights to fight for.
“It is important to understand the status of this case; it’s couples that are coming back to this country to claim their right to equality, their right to dignity and their right to family. To answer that question about same-sex marriages, I believe that a lot of LGBTQ people in this country, we experience a number of inequalities in service, in benefits, in having the right to say something over your partner.”
She hopes this ruling will lead to other rights for same-sex couples as well.
Jamie Alexander is the epitome of a supportive parent. Since his daughter Ruby came out as trans as a young child, he has done everything in his power to ensure she is loved and affirmed and can lead a happy life as her authentic self.
And that includes launching an entire company so that Ruby would have something to wear to the beach.
Tanius Posey said some negative comments have come from trans people who think he’s making them “look bad.”
Ruby had been having trouble finding a bikini that fit her well. For her own safety, her parents had insisted she wear board shorts to the beach. But Ruby eventually grew frustrated and just wanted to wear a bikini like her friends.
There wasn’t much on the market to meet Ruby’s needs, so Alexander decided to change that. Three years ago, he launched Rubies, which sells form-fitting bras, underwear, and swimwear for trans girls. It’s slogan: “Every girl deserves to shine.”
“One of the design points for Rubies was creating underwear and swimwear that feels the same as clothing cis people are wearing,” Alexander told LGBTQ Nation. “If you’re not physically comfortable, that gets in the way of you feeling comfortable overall.”
Over the past three years, Alexander has sent out more than 10,000 packages to trans girls in over 40 countries. He has spoken on panels, guided employee resource groups, and Zoomed directly with parents seeking advice on supporting their own trans children.
Alexander has also done several collaborations with LGBTQ+ groups, most recently partnering with Alexander Switzer’s Affirming Wardrobe, a program (through Switzer’s nonprofit Valid USA) that works with schools to supply gender-affirming clothing and undergarments to middle, high school, and college students.
In addition to running an Affirming Wardrobe in Tucson, Arizona at the University of Arizona Lutheran Campus Ministries, Alexander has largely worked with schools in Northern California, namely with the Oakland Unified School District.
He met Alexander when Rubies donated some merchandise to the organization, and the pair quickly knew they wanted to continue working together.
“I really liked what he was doing,” Alexander said, adding that working with Switzer has allowed Rubies products to reach a different cohort of young people – those without supportive parents that must seek out gender-affirming attire themselves.
Last month, in honor of the Transgender Day of Visibility, Alexander donated a slew of merchandise to Switzer.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to expand even further [and reach] older youth and be able to do some good, help these people in another critical time in their journey,” he said.
Both Switzer and Alexander praised the immensely positive effects their work has had on the kids they serve.
“A lot of kids have withdrawn from doing activities they love,” Alexander said. “And I don’t know about you, but for myself, you know, being able to go swimming at the beach, go to camp and feel comfortable, it’s kind of an essential part of growing up. So people say it’s life-changing for them and their kids.”
“Right away when a kid tries on their first bikini… They get that, you know, that twirl, like ‘Hey, I feel like myself.’”
Switzer, a trans man himself, told LGBTQ Nation that based on feedback he has received from the Oakland Unified School District, trans students who have access to the Affirming Wardrobe have had better attendance and even improved grades.
“They’re more interactive with their peers, they’re happier. They’re showing up for school every day. They’re showing up for club meetings, for events in the community… It’s really brought a lot of people, a lot of students, a lot of kids just so much joy.”
Both companies hope to continue expanding their reach as much as possible. Switzer is hoping to do so through college campus ministries.
“I grew up in the Christian church and was loved and welcomed, and then I was queer and I was a sin… So I strayed away from being with any kind of religious groups for 11 years and then [found] this very welcoming group of young people… They were super excited and welcoming of the idea of the Affirming Wardrobe. So with the partnership of the other church that we work with, they were able to give me space there.”
“Now we’re looking to connect with additional campus ministries at additional colleges to try to open space at their church or their college. I connected with my pastor, and we’re going to reach out to the over 100 different groups throughout the different universities.”
And now that Ruby is 15, Alexander has been expanding the company’s product line to grow with his daughter. He introduced a bra last year, for example, and he is working on creating other, more teen-centered undergarments as an increasing number of older kids also show interest in the brand.
“There’s always more to do,” he said. “Much more to grow Rubies into for sure.”
While both founders have experienced the inevitable backlash that accompanies supporting a marginalized group, they said they do their best to focus on the positive.
“The backlash, it just sort of falls off me,” said Alexander. “I knew going into this that there are some people that hate on the trans movement. They’re going to be there irrespective of what I’m doing. I really don’t focus on them at all. Rubies is really about celebrating these great people, the great community, the kids, it’s all positive…. What Rubies and I personally try to do is really just bring some joy to this community.”
“We don’t want you to be shocked,” Switzer added. “We want this to be normal. We’re just giving our kids what they need to succeed.”
He recalls a special Affirming Wardrobe program in San Francisco that paired 18 trans and gender nonconforming kids with 18 drag artists for a shopping spree at the LGBTQ+ thrift store, Out of the Closet.
“Just helping them shop and find what really makes them feel comfortable. We had a shy, shy youth come in that at first was very hesitant. And after, they had just the biggest smile on their face. They just broke out of their shell. And it was just… it drives the work.”
As someone who regularly witnesses the positive impact trans kids experience when their gender is affirmed, Switzer has a message for the GOP legislators seeking to limit trans kids’ freedom: “Just leave us be. Let us do what’s going to make us happy. We’re not hurting anybody. We are doing things within our lives to fulfill what we need to be to be happy.”
At just 54 years old, Rue Landau is already a living, breathing piece of LGBTQ+ history.
As a member of ACT UP during the height of the AIDS epidemic, she fought on the frontlines for better access to health care for people with HIV and AIDS. In 2014, while serving as executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, Landau and her wife, Kerry, became the first same-sex couple in Pennsylvania to get a marriage license.
The leaders did not acknowledge why Sims wasn’t their top choice.
Now, Landau could further embed herself in the fabric of Pennsylvania’s LGBTQ+ history as she seeks to become the first out LGBTQ+ person elected to the Philadelphia City Council.
“I’ve been working my whole career, fighting for social justice and equity,” Landau, a Democrat, told LGBTQ Nation. “All of the work I’ve done has naturally led up to this point. We’re facing tremendous challenges here in the city of Philadelphia, and I believe that I have the vision, the track record, and the relationships to get things done.”
Landau began her career as a civil rights attorney at Community Legal Services, where she defended low-income renters against evictions. She then spent 12 years directing Philadelphia’s Commission on Human Relations as well as the Fair Housing Commission, where she focused on advancing the city’s civil rights laws.
During her tenure, she helped create laws to advance wage equity, create reasonable accommodations for pregnant people, and strengthen anti-discrimination protections, including specifically for LGBTQ+ people.
Landau said her experiences working for the city taught her the importance of having an LGBTQ+ leader who is also trusted by other communities.
“It enabled me to be able to build coalitions across communities that did not happen before… To me, creating coalitions with our LGBTQ community and other communities throughout Philadelphia is going to make us all stronger and safer and make for a stronger city, and that is how we will build Philadelphia back post-pandemic and create the brighter better Philadelphia that we need.”
If elected to City Council, Landau’s priorities would be public safety (namely, tackling the gun violence epidemic), neighborhood investment, and affordable housing.
“I believe with more investments in our neighborhoods, in our schools, our rec centers, our libraries, our people, our cleaning and greening spaces, that’s the first start to helping with issues of public safety,” she said.
“And I want to increase community policing, increase de-escalation tactics, get far more mobile health crisis units on the street and active, and connected to all of that is the fact that we are the poorest large city in America. We must tackle our poverty crisis in order for people to feel hope and to thrive. For me, one of the big measures there is affordable housing.”
Landau certainly has her work cut out for her in the race. More than 20 candidates are running in the May 16 Democratic primary for the council’s seven available at-large seats.
Landau said it would be “incredible” to be the council’s first out member, but she also acknowledged the closeted leaders – like the late John C. Anderson – who have served before her.
“I stand on the shoulders of their greatness,” she said, adding that her victory “would mean that we finally had a seat at the table.”
“It would mean that our community didn’t just have advisory roles for legislation and policy, but that we really had a hand in crafting it with a seat at the table. It would also mean that I was a role model to other people. And as a parent, I can tell you that our young people need role models.”
Landau said Philadelphia is more or less a safe space for LGBTQ+ people, but that areas near the city – like Bucks County – have become caught up in the right-wing’s relentless vendetta against LGBTQ+ people.
Last year, the ACLU issued a 72-page complaint accusing Bucks County’s Central Bucks School District – one of the state’s largest – of creating a hostile environment for LGBTQ+ students. The complaint alleged that the district had propagated the removal of Pride flags, instructed teachers not to honor a student’s pronouns, and advocated for censorship of books with LGBTQ+ themes.
If elected, Landau vowed to reach across city lines to speak up for the surrounding LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s wonderful if we can maintain our safe borders here in Philadelphia,” Landau said. “But I think that we need to be the strongest voice in the state. We often are, but [we need to be] now more than ever… And we need to reach over to our counties and across the state and help them lift up all of their LGBTQ communities as well, to reach out to their elected officials, and to make sure that those areas remain safe for our communities as well.”
Above all else, Landau wants voters to see her as a coalition builder.
“I’ve been a fighter for social justice and equity my entire career… I bring people together. I have resolved conflicts. I’m a coalition builder, and I am working to make stronger communities and a stronger Philadelphia.”
Residents have been left stunned after antisemitic and anti-trans flyers were recently distributed across multiple Atlanta neighborhoods.
According to Fox 5, the flyers appear to have come from a group called the Goyim Defense League, which the Anti-Defamation League describes as “a loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism” whose “goal is to cast aspersions on Jews and spread antisemitic myths and conspiracy theories.”
Doctors could get up to 10 years in prison under the new law.
One of the flyers said Jews are behind “the rise in transgenderism” and included photos of trans leaders superimposed with Jewish stars. The flyer also warned of a “4000% explosion in kids identifying as transgender” and said kids are being “forced to unlearn boy-girl differences.”
Other flyers declared “every single aspect of feminism is Jewish” and “every single aspect of the Jewish Talmud is Satanic.”
“We just need to be more open and kind,” one resident, Caroline Joe, told Atlanta News First. “It’s kind of cowardly actually to just come into a neighborhood and distribute information like that.”
“I think the best places for those messages are in the trash can,” said another resident, Brian Davis. “I think we need to start treating people better, and I encourage whoever did this to go out there and find a Jewish person or a Black person or a gay person and befriend them.”
The FBI told the news agency that while they are of the situation, the distributors of the flyers do not appear to have broken federal law and are exercising their first amendment rights.
The flyers were found in the district of City Councilmember Lilliana Bakhtiari, the first nonbinary official elected in Atlanta. Bakhtiari called the flyers “vile” and “repugnant” and said their office “has been in regular communication” with the Atlanta Police and leaders of the affected communities.
“I will continue to extend myself – and my platform – as a resource to any person targeted on the basis of exclusion,” they said.
A statement from the Atlanta Police Department said it is “not aware of any criminal acts related to the flyers. However, their distribution has led to a heightened level of awareness throughout our department, and we have increased patrols around where the flyers were found.”
Georgia state Rep. Saira Draper (D) told Rough Draft Atlanta she is “appalled and disgusted” and that “this is not an isolated incident of hate.”
“As a state legislator, I can’t help but view this incident and our legislative policy choices as related. During the 2023 legislative session, the Georgia General Assembly failed to pass proposed legislation to curb rising rates of antisemitism.”
“Concurrently, the General Assembly prioritized the passage of legislation that discriminates against and harms transgender children and their families. There is a direct line between these policy decisions and creating an environment that emboldens hate groups and normalizes discriminatory rhetoric. It’s not enough for leaders to say they don’t tolerate hate; our policy agenda must do the same.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens (D) also condemned the flyers, saying he is “deeply disturbed.”
On Thursday, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) vetoed a slate of anti-trans bills passed by the Republican-dominated legislature.
One bill seeks to ban trans people from using bathrooms and other public facilities that align with their gender identity, and another attempts to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. A third would ban trans students from rooming with cis students on overnight school trips, and a fourth would require trans prisoners to be housed based on their sex assigned at birth.
She was accused of using “inappropriate and uncalled-for language” while defending trans youth.
In a statement on her vetoes, Kelly blasted the bills for taking away trans people’s rights and for their potential to hurt the Kansas economy.
“Companies have made it clear that they are not interested in doing business with states that discriminate against workers and their families. By stripping away rights from Kansans and opening the state up to expensive and unnecessary lawsuits, these bills would hurt our ability to continue breaking economic records and landing new business deals. I’m focused on the economy. Anyone care to join me?”
For at least three of the four bills, the legislature appears to have enough votes to override Kelly’s vetoes. The bill on gender-affirming care is the only one that may not, as 14 House Republicans voted against S.B. 26, which would ban all forms of gender-affirming care – including reversible puberty blockers – for those under 18.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) praised Kelly for vetoing the legislation.
“Today, Governor Kelly did the right thing,” said HRC state legislative director and senior counsel Cathryn Oakley. “By vetoing a series of bills designed solely to discriminate against LGBTQ+ – particularly transgender – Kansans, she rejected the politics of hate and division being perpetrated by the state legislature, all while keeping her focus on the issues that really matter. She’s right that discrimination is bad for business, bad for Kansas, and bad for this nation.”
Earlier this month, the Kansas GOP succeeded in passing an anti-trans sports ban that many worry will lead to invasive and traumatic genital examinations of student-athletes.
Lawmakers overrode Kelly’s third veto of the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” which bans transgender girls and women in kindergarten through college from participating in girls’ and women’s school sports.
“It breaks my heart,” Kelly said in the wake of the bill’s passage. “I’m sorry that they distracted themselves with this really awful bill.”
“It won’t increase test scores. It won’t help any kids read or write,” she wrote in her veto message. “It won’t help any teachers prepare our kids for the real world. Here’s what this bill would actually do: harm the mental health of our students.”
Kelly has long championed LGBTQ+ rights. When she first became governor in 2019, her first official act in office was to sign an executive order to restore protections for LGBTQ+ state employees.
“Discrimination of any kind has no place in Kansas,” Kelly said on her official Twitter account. “It will not be tolerated.”
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) signed a ban on gender-affirming care into law – and the ACLU is already suing.
The law not only prohibits trans youth from both gender-affirming medication and surgery, but it also requires youth already undergoing care to detransition.
The bill’s sponsor said student-athletes physicals would be used to determine if girls are cisgender.
It wasn’t clear at first whether Holcomb would support the legislation. Earlier this week, he called the bill “clear as mud” and said he wanted to clarify some of the “vagueness” before deciding whether or not to sign
ACLU National and the ACLU of Indiana filed a lawsuit on behalf of four trans youths and a doctor who provides gender-affirming care.
The organization is arguing that the law is unconstitutional, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. It also says the law is a violation of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid Act by banning essential services that Medicaid would otherwise authorize and reimburse.
“The legislature did not ban the various treatments that are outlined,” Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana’s legal director, told the AP. “It only banned it for transgender persons.”
In a separate statement, Falk asserted that the law will cause “serious injuries” to trans youth.
Studies have indeed shown that gender-affirming care can significantly lower the risk of depression and suicide for trans youth. Additionally, gender-affirming care for both adolescents and adults has been endorsed by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, and many other professional groups as necessary and frequently lifesaving for transgender individuals.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) also condemned Indiana’s law.
“Governor Holcomb’s decision to sign this gender-affirming care ban into law is about nothing more than prioritizing politics over the wellbeing of transgender youth in Indiana,” said HRC State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley. “This law will deny critical, age-appropriate medical care to transgender youth, putting their health and wellbeing at risk. The transgender community is being subjected to a legislative onslaught in states across the country, and it is truly appalling that radical politicians in Indiana are joining in on this harmful campaign that will only make life more difficult for transgender youth and their loved ones.”
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgment-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
A Christian woman is suing the state of Oregon for denying her application to foster and adopt children after she said she would not affirm any LGBTQ+ kids placed in her home.
Jessica Bates, a widow and a mother of five, alleges that the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) discriminated against her religion and violated her right to free speech by requiring that foster parents affirm LGBTQ+ youth.
The most anti-LGBTQ+ gay person in Congress joined the right’s Two Minute Hate of the trans influencer.
The lawsuit says that Bates “alerted the Department that she will gladly love and accept any child for who they are, but she cannot say or do anything against her Christian faith” and that when she “stood her ground,” her application was rejected.
It explained Bates’s Christian faith is what kept her going after her husband was killed in a brutal car crash in 2017. It added that Bates was inspired to apply to foster/adopt children after hearing about a man who did so while listening to a Christian broadcast.
“Jessica felt as though God was speaking to her,” it said. She felt a calling to help kids in need – but only if they weren’t LGBTQ+.
The lawsuit also lays out her anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs, explaining that she feels “a person cannot choose his or her gender”; that “a person should not go by pronouns that contradict or obscure their biological sex”; and that “marriage is the life-long union of one man and one woman.”
The suit called DHS’s acceptance policy “an ideological litmus test” that only allows people with “correct” views to adopt.
“A family that hunts need not give up meat eating because some children are vegans,” it continued. “And Jews need not accommodate foreign gods because some children desire a home with a Hindu shrine. In the end, the only group excluded from the process up front are those with religious beliefs like Jessica’s. Conservative Christians need not apply.”
The suit was filed on behalf of Bates by the virulently anti-LGBTQ+ organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate group.
ADF has joined with like-minded organizations in Europe in support of the forced sterilization of transgender individuals and has represented numerous anti-LGBTQ+ plaintiffs in pivotal legal battles for LGBTQ+ rights. The organization has also been a large force behind the anti-abortion movement.
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) is appealing a judge’s decision to nullify a section of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires insurance companies to cover the HIV prevention drug regimen PrEP.
Last week, U.S. District Juge Reed O’Connor struck down a section of the ACA requiring coverage of certain preventive health care services, which, in addition to PrEP, includes some cancer screenings, contraception, immunizations, and more. O’Connor’s decision leaves over 150 million people vulnerable to the added costs of this care.
A coordinated effort by right-wing media and lawmakers has decimated community-based programs addressing healthcare for LGBTQ+ people in Tennessee
O’Connor’s decision came about in response to a lawsuit filed by two Christian business owners and six individuals who felt being required to cover PrEP promotes “homosexual behavior” and is a violation of religious freedom. The plaintiffs also argued that being required to cover other preventive services makes them “complicit in facilitating… drug use, and sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman.”
In a statement on the appeal, out White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden “is glad to see the Department of Justice is appealing the judge’s decision” and that the case “is yet another attack on the Affordable Care Act, which has been the law of the land for 13 years and survived three challenges before the Supreme Court.”
“Preventive care saves lives, saves families money, and protects and improves our health,” she continued. “Because of the ACA, millions of Americans have access to free cancer and heart disease screenings. This decision threatens to jeopardize critical care. The administration will continue to fight to improve health care and make it more affordable for hard-working families, even in the face of attacks from special interests.”
Michael Weinstein, the founder and president of the Aids Healthcare Foundation, said O’Connor’s decision “will have dangerous consequences” for millions of Americans.
“While we expect this unconstitutional ruling ultimately will fail, the decision creates uncertainty and is a threat to public health,” Weinstein said.
This is not the first ruling O’Connor has made against PrEP and the ACA. In September 2022, he ruled that a provision of the act requiring employee health insurance plans to provide full coverage of HIV-prevention drugs (as well as other preventive health care services) is a violation of religious freedom. That ruling only applied to the companies of the plaintiffs in the case.
Long known as an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist, O’Connor also ruled in 2021 that businesses that say they’re religious can fire LGBTQ+ people, chipping away at the protections granted by the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton Co.
He ruled the same year that a Catholic hospital doesn’t have to follow federal anti-discrimination laws when it comes to the provision of health care because of the chance that they’d be forced to provide care for a transgender person that affirms their gender, even if the procedure is not one the hospital objects to. His reasoning for the sweeping religious exemption for the Catholic hospital was that Biden and Barack Obama have a “pattern” of religious animus, so they can’t be trusted to enforce the law correctly.
Almost 23% of trans youth in the United States have lost access to gender-affirming care.
A new report from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) found that of the 300,000 trans youth ages 13 through 17, there are 66,600 living in states that have passed bans on this lifesaving care. And 84,700 more trans youth (28.2%) live in states that are currently considering bans.
The state is the fourth to pass a law prohibiting trans students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity.
According to the Movement Advancement Project, there are currently eight states that fully ban gender-affirming care for minors, along with one state (Arizona) that bans “best practice surgical care” for trans youth.
In the first few months of 2023, alone, gender-affirming care bans have become law in Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee, Arkansas, Iowa, and Utah, in addition to five other anti-trans bills.
Over the past few years, Republicans have focused their agenda on attacking equality for transgender youth, with a particularly chilling new Tennessee law requiring youth who have already started gender-affirming care to de-transition. Other states, like Oklahomaand Florida, are considering similar legislation.
These laws go against the best practices of trans-related pediatrics outlined by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association. Numerous studies have shown that a lack of societal acceptance and access to gender-affirming care contribute to high rates of suicide among trans youth. And other studies have found that gender-affirming care actively lowers the risk of depression and suicide in trans youth.
And it’s more than just trans youth being targeted.
Over 400 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have already been filed this year – more than the total number filed in 2022. The American Civil Liberties Union tracks these hateful bills with a map that allows viewers to search by state, issue, or status. It says 14 have become law, 332 have advanced, 64 have been defeated, and 19 have been introduced.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) has introduced a bill designed specifically to protect LGBTQ+ youth in foster care.
S.B. 407 seeks to require that the unique needs of LGBTQ+ youth are considered when assessing the fitness of home. Under the bill, homes in which potential foster parents are not supportive of LGBTQ+ identities would be considered ineligible to foster.
“My dad grew up watching you as Wonder Woman,” the trans woman wrote. “Unfortunately he isn’t as open minded as you.”
“Every child deserves to be one hundred percent supported at home,” Wiener told the Los Angeles Blade. “S.B. 407 ensures that foster youth receive this essential support by specifically requiring LGBTQ acceptance be considered in the resource family approval (RFA) process, creating standard documentation for the assessment of LGBTQ youth needs, and ensuring more frequent follow-up. These youth are at high risk for homelessness, criminal justice involvement, and mental health issues, and we must do everything in our power to ensure they have a safe home in the state of California.”
The bill states that at least three studies estimate that approximately thirty percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ+ and that these kids “have a right to be placed in out-of-home care according to their gender identity and the right to have caregivers that have received instruction on cultural competency and sensitivity” regarding caring for LGBTQ+ youth.
It also stated that LGBTQ+ foster youth who are currently being placed with families that do not affirm them are experiencing “additional harm and trauma.” It cites the Trevor Project, which found that teens with parental support for their gender identity were 93% less likely to attempt suicide.
Since 2019, California’s Foster Youth Bill of Rights has included a child’s right to have their LGBTQ+ identity affirmed, as well as the right to keep it private if they want to. But those rights have not yet been applied to the placement process.
“LGBTQ+ foster youth experience violence and other stressors unique to the LGBTQ+ community, including homophobia or transphobia,” Tony Hoang, Executive Director of Equality California, a sponsor of the bill, told the Blade.
“S.B. 407 protects LGBTQ+ foster youth from being placed in non-affirming homes by creating standard guidelines and criteria that carefully screens potential families. LGBTQ+ foster youth need a healthy environment that supports and embraces them as they explore their identity.”
