LGBTQ+ youth deserve to be affirmed and surrounded by a loving community—whether they are living at home with their families or in foster care. While there have been some positive shifts over the past year, there have also been an incredible number of attacks on LGBTQ+, and specifically trans, young people. As we look toward 2025, we have an important opportunity to advance policy and practice solutions that center LGBTQ+ young people by recognizing and respecting young people’s full identities and eliminating policies and practices that marginalize or diminish any aspect of a young person’s identity.
As a young person from the West Coast shared with CSSP, “I think it would have helped me if I would have known that my foster mom or my foster dad were ok with [my sexuality]. I never knew if I could disclose it and I never did. And I think that’s where I think a lot of my outlashing, my attitude, my anger, my depression, and my rebellion came from. I felt like nobody understood me. If there was some sort of way for me to know that they were conscious of me and my sexuality and what I’m dealing with, they wouldn’t even have had to sit there and say it, but even just providing the environment and that thought process, I think that would have helped me.”
Why Affirming LGBTQ+ Youth Matters
Access to affirming, supportive, and inclusive health care; to caring adults who fully support and honor their development; to schools that promote their growth and learning; and to communities and friends that respect and support them gives LGBTQ+ youth what they need to pursue and fulfill their goals and dreams.
Research has confirmed what families already know about how to promote healthy and happy children. Young people who identify as LGBTQ+, and all of our children and youth, deserve this love and care. In order to promote optimal well-being, it is important for all children and youth to receive attention to and acceptance of their unique, multidimensional identities, including race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Studies have consistently shown, and young people have affirmed, the value of supportive communities and safe spaces where youth can explore their identity and develop strategies for coping and thriving; services and resources that promote healthy development and self-esteem; and systems that promote accessibility to resources and inclusive environments, where the inherent worth and dignity of every young person is respected. Unfortunately, despite knowing what children need, policymakers have done the exact opposite, and are doing so at a staggering rate. They are bucking research, best practice, and human decency by passing law after law targeting LGBTQ+ youth and their parents, teachers, and health care providers.
For LGBTQ+ youth who are involved with child welfare, systems have a responsibility to support youth in affirming homes and ensure they have access to affirming and responsive services. Current estimates suggest that 30 percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ+, with one study finding that 44 percent of LGBTQ+ youth entered foster care for reasons related to their identity. When child welfare systems separate children from their families, it is their legal responsibility to promote their well-being. However, due to a number of barriers including a lack of protections and investments in and availability of SOGIE-responsive and affirming resources, LGBTQ+ young people are often not able to access the resources they need to thrive. Without comprehensive policy and practice change, LGBTQ+ youth continue to be left without access to affirming placements and services.
The Opportunity Ahead
In recent years, there has been more and more research confirming the importance of providing LGBTQ+ youth with affirming homes, schools, communities, and supports. Through CSSP’s getREAL initiative and the federally-funded National Quality Improvement Center on Tailored Services, Placement Stability, and Permanency for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Two-Spirit Children and Youth in Foster Care (QIC-LGBTQ2S), which supported jurisdictions in implementing approaches to support and affirm LGBTQ+ youth in child welfare, there is strong evidence of effective community-based interventions, including the Youth Acceptance Project, and system reform strategies that shift outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth in child welfare by creating conditions that promote affirming youth identities.
The federal government has taken steps over the past four years to protect LGBTQ+ youth through the grants rule and rulemaking related to nondiscrimination in health activities, and has issued an information memorandum to states on best practices for supporting LGBTQ+ youth, including through banning conversation therapy. In addition, many states have added gender identity as a protected class in law or policy related to youth in out-of-home systems and, 16 states and Washington, D.C. provide additional affirmative protection for LGBTQ+ youth in a variety of ways, including protecting the right of transgender and nonbinary youth to access gender-affirming medical care.
Next year marks a critical opportunity to build on the positive momentum at the federal and state level to ensure LGBTQ+ youth have access to affirming supports in their communities, and affirming placements when they are in foster care. Increasing investments in affirming supports for youth will be critical; providing strong guidance for the implementation of federal rule for placements for LGBTQ+ youth in foster care; and advancing non-discrimination policy across federal programs and at the state level will be essential. And as we advance investments in positive policy and practice, this also marks the time to reject the dangerous policies and practices being advanced in some states, courts, and public systems.
We owe LGBTQ+ youth support and care as they are growing up—there is nothing radical in that idea. What is radical is 658 bills aimed at preventing children from being healthy and supported in accordance with all we know about what children and youth need. Part of supporting our children is protecting them from harm, and when the health and happiness of some of our children are at risk, we are putting the health and happiness of all of our children on the line. Now is the time to stand up for all children and youth, including LGBTQ+ youth, by ensuring access to affirming services and investing in inclusive communities.
If you missed previous Five for 2025: CSSP’s Policy Priorities to Champion Economic Justice, Health Justice, and Family Autonomy, you can review them here:
Unrestricted Cash: A Lifeline for Young People and Families
As part of this work, we are sharing several resources on social media related to our policy priority “Affirming LGBTQ+ Youth: Strategies for Communities and Child Welfare Systems.” Those resources include:
- 2024 Capitol Hill Policy Briefing: Queer and Vulnerable
- Advancing Healthy Outcomes: Eight Ways to Promote the Health and Well-Being of LGBTQ+ Youth Involved with Child Welfare through FFPSA
- A Blueprint for Progress: Supporting LGBTQ Youth of Color in Child Welfare Systems
- Children Deserve Better: Policy Attacks on LGBTQ+ Children Violate Their Rights and Harm Us All
- Few states require foster homes to respect LGBTQ youths’ identities (Route-Fifty.com)
- Guidelines for Managing Information Related to the Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity and Expression of Children in Child Welfare Systems
- Implementing System Wide Policy and Practice Improvements to Support LGBTQ+ Youth
- Out of the Shadows: Supporting LGBTQ Youth in Child Welfare Through Cross-System Collaboration
- Progress Towards Building an Affirming and Supportive Child Welfare System: getREAL in Allegheny County
- Safe Havens II: We Must Affirm and Support Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender Diverse Youth in Out-of-Home Systems
- Supporting All Our Values: How Publicly Funded, Faith-Based Child Welfare Providers and Non-Discrimination Laws Can Promote Well-Being
- Supporting Permanency for LGBTQ+ and Gender Expansive Youth
- Welcoming, Affirming, Supporting: Child Welfare Systems Must Honor the WHOLE Child
- Why is Gender Affirming Care Important?