This article originally appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News on March 24, 2010. 

 
Abuse of LGBTQ children

By CEI BELL

A TRANSGENDER teen girl and Lambda Legal Defense have filed a lawsuit against the city's Youth Study Center and Department of Human Services. The girl alleges that despite being diagnosed with gender identity disorder she was housed with males and subjected to constant verbal and physical abuse.

In fact, according to the suit, one Youth Study Center supervisor told this petite girl that he would not call her by her feminine name until she had her genitals removed. Of course, the language he used was much more crude.

Last spring, DHS held a meeting for young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) and who find themselves in the foster-care system. About 100 people attended. Half were clients and half social-service providers. Several transgender teens spoke about being harassed at the Youth Study Center and in group homes.

Phillip (not his real name), who recently turned 18 and is in college, spoke to me about seeing an effeminate boy being beaten up in a group home. The supervisors put the child in a room with the bullies to fight them. The boy ended up being beaten again. Philip also claims to have witnessed effeminate boys being sexually abused by other boys at residential treatment facilities.

Carrie Jacobs, executive director and co-founder of the Attic Youth Center, said she's seen an increase in young people coming out at earlier ages. Jacobs said that, when she was young, they didn't have words for the feelings they had. Now they do - but going public has consequences. And it's particularly thorny because foster parents are rarely trained to deal with gay youth.

According to Jacobs, "Foster parents may take on the care of a child when he is 3 years old and then when the youth turns 14 or 15 and comes out he may get kicked out." Jacobs suggested that when the state is contracting with a foster parent, "they might want to make clear the reality that some youth will come out as lesbian, gay or transgender."

LGBTQ youth in the foster-care system and residential treatment facilities can be forced to endure child abuse by the very people paid to look out for their welfare.

Transgender youth, in particular, are targets for physical and sexual abuse with no recourse for rescue or escape. If an LGBTQ child avoids going to school or leaves foster care due to fear of being beaten up, then the child is delinquent. If an LGBTQ child is assaulted and fights back, the child can be prosecuted as a criminal.

Where other adolescents are offered college and careers, all too often LGBTQ youth are offered the streets, drugs, sexual abuse, solicitation and worse. There is no way that this can be tolerated as either moral or ethical.

Cei Bell is a Philadelphia writer.


 
 

Resources for LGBTQ Youth

AIDS Services in Asian Communities
215.563.2424
340 N. 12th Street
Suite 205
Philadelphia, PA   19107
www.asiac.org

The Attic Youth Center 
255 S. 16th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
 215.545.4331 x 108
F: 215.545.5774

atticyouthcenter.org 
United Way #12705

Center for Lesbian & Gay Civil Rights
215.731.1388
www.center4civilrights.org
1315 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA   19107-5601

Choice Hotline
215.985.3300, 800.342.2437
Espanol: 215.335.3350
Monday-Thursday 8:30 AM-7:30 PM,  Friday 8:30 AM - 5 PM, Saturday 9AM - 1PM
www.choice-phila.org/hotlines.htm

Colours, Inc. (Serving LGBTQ people of color)
215-496-0330, 215-496-0354 Fax
112 N. Broad Street, 11th Floor
Philadelphia, PA   19102
www.coloursorganization.org/

Covenant House Youth Shelter
215.951.5411
www.covenanthousepa.org

GALAEI Project
215.985.3382
www.galaei.org

Main Line Youth Alliance
610.688.1861
106 West Lancaster Avenue
Wayne, PA   19087
www.myaonline.org

Mazzoni Center (health care)
215.563.0652
21 S. 12th Street
Philadelphia, PA   19107
mazzonicenter.org

Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)
215.572.1833
pflag.org

Planned Parenthood
215.351.5560
1144 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA   19107
www.plannedparenthood.org

Runaway 9 Line Covent House
800.999.9999

Suicide and Crisis Intervention
215.686.4420

Safeguards
215.985.6873
260 S. Broad Street, 10th Floor
Philadelphia, PA   19102
www.safeguards.org

Trevor Project (24/7 suicide and crisis prevention for LGBTQ youth
866.4.U.Trevor, 866.488.7386
www.thetrevorproject.org

University of Penn LGBT Center, The Carriage House
215.898.5044
3907 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA   19104-6031
www.center@dolphin.upenn.edu

William Way Community Center
215.732.2200
1315 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA   19107-5601
www.waygay.org

Women Organized Against Rape
215.985.3333
One Penn Center
1617 JFK Boulevard, Suite 1100
Philadelphia, PA   19103
www.woar.org

Y-Hep
215.564.6388
112 N. Broad St., 9th Floor
JFK Building
Philadelphia, PA   19102
www.y-hep.org

Youth Emergency Services
215.787.0633
1526 Fairmount Avenue
Philadelphia, PA   19130
www.ysiphila.org