When children are removed from their homes and enter foster care, things are moving so quickly they are often given nothing more than a garbage bag to carry their belongings. It’s a heart-wrenching image. Now, couple that with the even more sobering reality that LGBTQ+ youth are dramatically overrepresented in the child welfare system. According to Human Rights Campaign research, 30% of kids in foster care identify as LGBTQ+, and LGBTQ+ youth are up to seven times more likely to end up in foster care compared to their heterosexual peers.
Hundreds of these vulnerable LGBTQ+ young people live in San Diego, and helping them requires more than just one-time gestures or statements of solidarity during Pride. For these kids to have the bright future they deserve, all of us need to consistently take action to create safe, stable, affirming environments where they can grow into their true selves.
Think of this: The LGBTQ+ child holding their belongings in a garbage bag as they enter foster care has likely faced bullying, rejection and misunderstanding from their family on top of experiencing abuse and neglect. Statistically, that LGBTQ+ child will face many more challenges throughout their time in care, including more physical violence and discrimination in group home settings and more frequent moves between foster care placements. The latest data from The Trevor Project shows that they are far more likely to suffer from untreated mental health challenges and attempt or consider suicide at higher rates.
Their troubles compound as they age out of the foster care system with no home, no financial security and no consistent family to turn to for advice. LGBTQ+ transition-age youth leaving foster care are 120% more likely to experience homelessness. Many of us with adult children, godchildren, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or other young people in our lives know that they don’t stop needing us once they turn 18. But the support many children may receive from caring adults as they grow up, from advice on navigating healthy relationships to help making a budget to feedback on their resume, just isn’t there for San Diego’s LGBTQ+ former foster youth. They often have no one to call.
However, there is hope. The same Trevor Project study found that LGBTQ+ youth with even just one caring, consistent, affirming adult have dramatically better mental health outcomes and are therefore better positioned to find housing, education and meaningful work. Organizations like Walden Family Services have been those caring adults for 18- to 26-year-old transition-age youth. Walden programs provide stable housing once their foster care case closes, workforce readiness and job coaching, tuition support and college-start resources, and parenting support for transition-age youth trying to build a healthy family without a blueprint. Our dedicated volunteers, life skills coaches and case workers create a network of people who will walk alongside them so they don’t have to face young adulthood alone.
San Diego Pride is a moment to highlight our city’s often-marginalized LGBTQ+ community. Within that community, though, are the foster youth who are often overlooked and forgotten. This month, let’s turn this moment of celebration into action for these young adults. We are committed to continually reducing the number of LGBTQ+ transition-age youth experiencing homelessness in San Diego, but we need our community’s help — especially when it comes to creating affirming, supportive environments for LGBTQ+ foster youth to grow into adulthood.
There are a number of ways you can help. If you have the capacity, you can become an affirming LGBTQ+ inclusive foster or respite caregiver. You can support Walden Family Services and other organizations supporting LGBTQ+ foster youth through donations or volunteering. You can call on your elected representatives, school boards and other local officials to support policies that create safe environments for LGBTQ+ youth. You can become an everyday advocate for LGBTQ+ youth by challenging misinformation or stigma when it comes up among your friends, family and coworkers.
Before their circumstances, before their trauma, every LGBTQ+ child in foster care is a young person first. By taking Pride celebrations and turning them into year-round action, we can remind San Diego’s LGBTQ+ youth in foster care that their future is not defined by their challenges. Their time in foster care is a chapter, not the whole story.
Stivers, CEO of Walden Family Services, lives in Tierrasanta. Wynne, the head of security at Gossip Grill and a volunteer at Walden Family Services, lives in Hillcrest.