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Foster parents need more vetting, training for LGBTQ children

30,000 queer kids age out of system each year

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About 30,000 children age out of foster care each year and 70 percent of those children wind up homeless.

About 30,000 children age out of foster care each year and 70 percent of those children wind up homeless. The majority of the homeless population under the age of 18 are LGBTQ youth, often who canā€™t find an inclusive home and enter group homes where more prevalent mental, sexual, and psychological abuse turns them to the streets.

When an LGBTQ child enters the foster care system, the pot of eligible homes becomes smaller, said Rob Scheer, the founder of Comfort Cases, a non-profit that supplies personal care items to youth entering the foster care system. 

ā€œThe first thing we think of as kids in our system when we realize that we are part of the LGBTQ+ family, is why am I damaged?ā€ said Scheer, a gay man who experienced the foster care system as a child. ā€œWhy am I not given that open space to be free and be who I am?ā€

The average child in foster care moves from three to four homes before finding a long-term placement. This is often due to foster care agenciesā€™ neglect to inform foster parents that a child is a part of the LGBTQ community. However, when foster parents are informed of the childā€™s identity, less movement occurs.

Even when children come out as being LGBTQ and the foster parents allow them to stay, some homes do so in order to receive a monthly stipend from the government or private foster agency, Scheer said. This puts children at risk of both direct and indirect mental abuse.

Indirect heterosexism that sends micro-messages of shame is extremely harmful to kids, according to Chloe Perez, the CEO of Hearts and Homes for Youth, a non-profit working with children with higher levels of need, such as therapy appointments for a mental health diagnosis. 

ā€œWe have had parents who have talked about, ā€˜Oh, you know, his frilly, girly, feminine ways,ā€ said Perez. ā€œMaybe theyā€™re not saying I hate gay peopleā€¦but itā€™s that subliminal messaging all the time that is equally detrimental.ā€

Itā€™s common for LGBTQ children to either stay quiet about their sexuality or identity or act out to disrupt a placement before they risk rejection from the family.  

By age five or six, many children already experience rejection and the resulting trauma from multiple placements, Perez added. However, when foster parents know how to manage disruptive behaviors, thereā€™s less risk of additional placement disruption.

But this requires specific vetting and training procedures for potential foster parents. 

Once potential foster parents complete all of the stateā€™s criteria, Hearts and Homes for Youth provide an additional, extensive training program. Since some kids come into the non-profitā€™s care after 14 or 15 placements, this process includes trauma-response training that informs parents of a childā€™s possible emotional reactions.

If any foster parent says they donā€™t want to foster LGBTQ or BIPOC kids, Perez said they try to understand where the parentsā€™ concern stems from to resolve the issue.

ā€œ[Whether itā€™s] cultural, age or based around religionā€¦we have seen that sometimes just really having that in-depth conversation can help them shift,ā€ said Perez. ā€œIf theyā€™re not willing to do that, then thatā€™s a no-go.ā€

Parents are often more direct when it comes to saying they wonā€™t take an LGBTQ child as opposed to a child of color, Perez added, because people are more comfortable openly expressing their opinions about sexual orientation or identity than race, which is more commonly condemned.

If problems arise once a child is in a foster home, an agent conducts an at-home check-in to assess whether the foster parent needs to redo training. However, most issues after the placement are centered around parentsā€™ discipline practices, such as smacking a child, rather than discrimination.

In the case that a foster home isnā€™t suitable, Hearts and Homes for Youth also offers five group homes and an independent living program for pregnant and parenting teen moms. 

However, the high rate of suicide among LGBTQ children in foster care continues to reflect the conditions for most LGBTQ kids beyond their care.

ā€œWhat we need to do in society is step up our social responsibility and make sure that we are giving these kids everything that I give to my five children,ā€ said Scheer. ā€œGuidance, unconditional support, and unconditional love.ā€

For information on how to become a foster parent in D.C., visit Child and Family Services Agency.

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Congress

Five HIV/AIDS activists arrested during USAID hearing

Protesters demanded full restoration of PEPFAR funding

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(Public domain photo)

Capitol Police on Thursday arrested five HIV/AIDS activists who disrupted a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that focused on the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The activists ā€” including Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell, Housing Works CEO Charles King, and ACT UP NY co-founder Eric Sawyer ā€” started chanting “PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) saves lives. Restore AIDS funding now” shortly after Max Primorac, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, began to testify. They also held posters that read “Trump kills people with AIDS worldwide.”

The Trump-Vance administration last month froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for at least 90 days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later issued a waiver that allows PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the freeze.

The Washington Blade last week reportedĀ PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of a lack of U.S. funding. The Trump-Vance administration’s efforts to dismantle USAID, along with the suspension of nearly all U.S. foreign aid, has been “a catastrophe” for the global LGBTQ rights movement.

“I guess these guys don’t watch the news. They didn’t realize that PEPFAR was one of the many programs that did prove to be lifesaving, so the funding was restored,” said U.S. Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, after Capitol Police removed the activists from the room. “Somebody better give ’em a link to … I don’t know, maybe Fox News or something like that.”

Russell and King are two of the dozens of HIV/AIDS activists who protested outside the State Department on Feb. 6 and demanded U.S. officials fully restore PEPFAR funding.

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Virginia

Va. House approves Ebbin resolution to repeal marriage amendment

Proposal passed with Republican support

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(Bigstock photo)

The Virginia House of Delegates on Thursday approved gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria)’s resolution that seeks to repeal a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The resolution passed by a 58-33 vote margin. State Sen. Mark Obenshein (R-Harrisonburg) is among the Republicans who supported it.

“Glad to report that SJ 249, my constitutional amendment to protect marriage equality, has passed the House of Delegates with bipartisan support,” said Ebbin after the vote.

The House last month approved a similar resolution that gay state Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County) introduced.

Voters approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment in 2006.

Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin last year signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.

The General Assembly in 2021 approved a resolution that seeks to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment. It must pass in two successive legislatures before it can go to the ballot.

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Politics

Trump picks Richard Grenell as interim Kennedy Center executive director

President proclaimed “no more drag shows” at D.C. institution

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Richard Grenell speaks at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

President Donald Trump on Monday picked Richard Grenell to serve as interim executive director of the Kennedy Center, just days after appointing himself chair the national cultural center and removing several members of the institution’s board of trustees.

Grenell is an openly gay diplomat and fierce ally to the president who served in high profile roles, including as acting director of national intelligence, during his first administration.

“Ric shares my vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American arts and culture, and will be overseeing the daily operations of the Center,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ā€” ONLY THE BEST. RIC, WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS!”

In a previous post announcing his takeover of the center and purging of Democratic board members including appointees of former President Joe Biden , Trump wrote “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured drag shows specifically targeting our youth ā€” THIS WILL STOP.”

Board members oversee the administration of federally appropriated funds for the ā€œoperation, maintenance, and capital repair of the presidential memorial as well as its trust-funded artistic programming,ā€ per the 2025 fiscal year budget justification to Congress. Together with previous honorees, they are responsible for selecting new Kennedy Center Honors recipients each year.

The federal government provided about $45 million in funding to the center last year, roughly a fifth of its $268 million operating budget in 2024.

On Wednesday, Grenell said on X that he was briefed by the center’s CFO and learned there is “ZERO cash on hand. And ZERO in reserves. And the deferred maintenance is a crisis.”

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