Love & Pride in Child Welfare
Photo taken by Austin-based photographer Megan Bucknall on Unsplash
Child Welfare is not a household word unless you live in the world of the Child Welfare system. June is Pride Month, but while there are millions who deserve to celebrate themselves for these thirty days and beyond, there are biases still existing in our Child Welfare system that prevent millions from joining the festivities, specifically the LGBTQ+ children and youth who are involved in the system.
According to youth.gov, “LGBTQ+ youth are overrepresented in child welfare systems, even though they are likely to be underreported because they risk harassment and abuse if their LGBTQ+ identity is disclosed. Studies have found that about 30 percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ+ and 5 percent as transgender, in comparison to 11 percent and 1 percent of youth not in foster care.”
Imagine this: you are separated from your birth parents. It could be for any number of reasons. Abuse, neglect, safety allegations. You are now under the temporary conservatorship of the state and are being placed with a new family. These complete strangers are kind and capable of providing necessities like a home and food and clothing.
There’s just one problem: no one here drinks water the way you do.
In fact, they don’t drink water at all. They drink tea, coffee, and Gatorade. All things with water in them. You could, theoretically, survive without it. You don’t want to cause trouble. You don’t want to seem ungrateful. You don’t want to be moved to another home or put in a shelter. You just want water.
Nevertheless, you are not allowed to drink water because it is unholy, unnatural, a product of your youth and peer pressure. You are told you’re going through a phase and one day you’ll drink these water off-shoots like everyone else. You are forced to attend “therapy” where you feel demeaned and humiliated. You start to think there’s something wrong with you and no one understands your needs.
You ask your caseworker to help you, but they tell you to try again. They tell you to keep an open mind.
The state provides you with CPS Rights for Children in Foster Care, but the state denies the very existence of water. As a matter of fact, they claim water itself is propaganda. Here, take a pamphlet.
A lawyer is selected to represent you, but the lawyer says there is no legal precedent to defend a client that drinks water like you do.
Now, one of the most human requirements, like water or love or identity or self-expression, is something you are not allowed to have and there isn’t a way for you to get it. You start to think there is a convoluted system determined to ignore, erase, or eradicate people who drink water. But in reality, it’s not water, it’s your LGBTQ+ identity that you are being pushed to change.
But that’s absurd, right?
If that scenario disturbed you, it was only a few steps that may be experienced in the shoes of thousands of LGBTQ+ foster kids in the state of Texas. It is not everyone’s story, but it shouldn’t belong to anyone.
At Mission Capital, we cannot rewrite the systems or policies of oppression, but our Collective Impact Child Welfare team actively works not to perpetuate these harmful systems. Our team centers community voice in our work and a collaborative of shared power and decision-making with professionals and community members to address community needs. Our new model, that centers trauma-informed, equity and cultural responsiveness, revolves around four basic principles: prevention, intervention, reunification, and adoption.
Image Supplied by Denin Lawley on Unsplash
This month, we’re going to take a closer look at how three of these principles, prevention, intervention, and adoption, are key tactics in making a difference to the Child Welfare System.
Blessedly, there are incredible members of our community who are standing in pride with our LGBTQ+ foster kids and going to great lengths to make sure every child can celebrate the pride they deserve to see in themselves.
Prevention
According to the DFPS (Department of Family Protective Services), in January of this year, child protective services had custody of 12,923 youth.
Our Collective Impact Child Welfare Team partners with multidisciplinary providers, community, and parents to lower this number through our human-centered, intersectional approach. We do not believe that one solution can be used for every child. We are each of us born individuals, and that individuality deserves to be acknowledged and respected.
In the words of Audre Lorde: “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” In that spirit, in the case of LGBTQ+ foster children, the word and tactics of prevention take on various forms. That includes the prevention of biases in the Family Court System, where LGBTQ+ parents face unique difficulties in gaining custody of their children.
We interviewed Judge Aurora Martinez Jones, one of our community powerhouses, who specializes in child welfare law and is the 126th District Court Judge. When asked about the biases and laws that affect the Family Court system, Judge Martinez stated that:
“There are many biases that are still existing in our family courts that are harmful to LGBTQ+ parents, including the notion or idea that stable appropriate families include one mother and one father. Most of the biases stem from this… For example, our family laws have very specific parameters on when a father is presumed to be the father due to a marriage even if he is not biologically the father. However, there is not a ‘presumed mother’ in the very same circumstances when a child is born during the marriage of a same sex-female couple. So, this leaves us in an unfair situation when two women have a child, and one woman births the child and has rights to the child, but the other woman does not, even though the child was born during the marriage.”
Intervention
Intervention services usually involve DFPS, nonprofits, courts and individuals and are targeted at keeping birth families together. Let’s define it in this context: Mission Capital is committed to working with professionals and community to support and advocate for families who have been affected by intersectional systems, mandatory reporting policies, and marginalized communities.
We do this through many routes, but when it comes to caring for and supporting foster children, it is about empowering and providing resources for those who are already in foster care.
In 2021, Mission Capital worked with Change1 to train ten foster youth in research and employment skills in a Youth Summer Internship Program. The 5-week sessions trained youth to identify methods of research, create surveys, practice interpersonal skills, evaluate data, and develop leadership skills.
During this program, we were joined by community volunteers who shared their career journeys in education, employment, and skill building as examples of successful outcomes with perseverance.
The point? It truly does take a village to raise any child. Yet, in the case of our LGBTQ+ children, that village is sorely wanting.
The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that 45% of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. That is why there are community organizations such as Change1 that are determined to make a change in the lives of every child. To those who despair that change isn’t coming, a word from one of our heroes.
“You must never be defeated. Ever.” Maya Angelou.
A key focus for Mission Capital is to “equip and connect mission-driven, leaders, organizations and networks as we advance equity and opportunity in Central Texas”, particularly with, and alongside, our community partners.
Right now, there is an LGBTQ+ Resource Guide in the works, created by the LGBTQ+ Child Welfare Work Group at DFPS. According to the group, the purpose of the guide is “… to ensure that DFPS caseworkers have practical guidance about how to treat LGBTQ+ youth fairly and respectfully, consistent with DFPS policy, and directs caseworkers how to act if youth are experiencing harm or discrimination in care, in school, or in the community. In addition, the guide contains links to resources, so caseworkers may easily make referrals for any services and support youth may need to address trauma, find community support, receive necessary medical and mental health care, and promote positive youth development.”
This LGBTQ+ resource guide will allow caseworkers to better serve their young clients. It has been a long time coming, but as Judge Martinez Jones puts it “… I am interested in [it], once it becomes publicly available as is the route the guide is now going, to reviewing it through our Travis County Model Court LGBTQ+ & CPS Committee to see how we may be able to use this guide.”
Another helpful resource comes from Casey Family Programs, How can child welfare agencies effectively support LGBTQ+ youth in care?
Adoption
While same-sex marriage is legal in Texas, and a married same-sex couple is allowed to adopt as a couple, barriers still exist to their ability to begin or grow a family.
In 2017, Texas House Bill 3895, summarized as “relating to the protection of the rights of conscience for child welfare service providers” allowed faith-based agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ+ foster parents, single parents or families with faiths that do not align with the agencies.
Fortunately, not every faith-based organization discriminates against LGTBQ+ parents. Mission Capital believes in equitable prevention efforts to support family resiliency, and prevention as well as support reunification and or/permanency processes by broadening human centered engagement and holistically supporting families. If you’re on the look-out for organizations that can help you and your partner to adopt an incredible kid, look no further.
Here is a small and non-exhaustive list of national resources to get you started!
Movement Advancement Project - This is the peak of information about foster and adoption laws per state, donor insemination laws, de facto parenting and how LGBTQ+ parents can support and protect themselves and their children against biased laws. Go get that baby!
Child Welfare Information Gateway - provides information specifically tailored to LGBTQ+ parents about the adoption process. Go be a great caretaker!
Trevor Project - The Trevor Project is an expansive resource center for LGBTQ+ parents or children on mental health, legal representation, and counseling.
Human Rights Campaign - HRC is a national organization of activists, changemakers and community members dedicated to providing the resources and advocacy to the LGBTQ+ community. Don’t forget you’re never alone!
Proud to be Part of Your Village
The Child Welfare System was not built to reflect the diverse needs, demographics and dignity deserved of families.
This is precisely why our Collective Impact Child Welfare team at Mission Capital is so important, as we strive to address systemic inequities through the shared power of collaboration and community voice. Our new model of prevention, intervention, reunification and adoption gives us the ability to work alongside other changemakers to enact positive change.
Our Collective Impact Team advances this systems-change work by providing trainings in facilitation, advocacy, and education so that our community can become empowered to step in when necessary. We believe that positive change is possible within the child welfare system so that children and families can thrive.
In conclusion, drink water. Acknowledge and celebrate your differences. Don’t ever be defeated.
From all of us here at Mission Capital, Happy Pride.
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