The Biden-era policy that would have protected queer kids in the child welfare system, advocates say.
Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:
President Donald Trump’s administration has formally stripped away federal protections for LGBTQ+ children in foster care, a move that former officials, advocates, and foster youth themselves say will make life harder for young people already facing some of the highest levels of rejection, instability, and trauma in the child welfare system. Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services published the rescission Tuesday, eliminating a Biden-era rule that had been designed to help ensure that LGBTQ+ foster children could be placed in supportive homes, seek relief from hostile placements, and be protected from dangerous so-called “conversion therapy” and retaliation. For critics of the move, the policy change is not simply a matter of regulatory housekeeping. It is another example of the Trump administration removing safeguards from a group of vulnerable young people whose lives are already difficult enough.
LGBTQ+ foster youth already face worse outcomes
Research, including from the Williams Institute at UCLA’s Law School, consistently shows that LGBTQ+ young people are overrepresented in foster care and fare worse within the system. The consequences extend beyond where children are placed. The Trevor Project found that LGBTQ+ young people with a history of foster care had nearly three times the odds of attempting suicide in the previous year compared with those who had never been in the system. Forty percent of transgender and nonbinary respondents with foster care histories said they had been kicked out, abandoned, or forced to run away because of mistreatment tied to their LGBTQ+ identity. Julie Kruse, a former senior adviser on LGBTQI+ initiatives at HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, said LGBTQ+ foster youth are often overrepresented in the system because of rejection by their families of origin, then face fewer paths out once they enter it. They are less likely to be reunified, adopted, or placed permanently with relatives. “They have no off-ramp,” she told The Advocate in an interview.
What the Biden-era rule protected
The Biden administration’s 2024 rule sought to address some of those realities. It required state and tribal child welfare agencies that receive federal funding under Titles IV-E and IV-B of the Social Security Act to make specially trained, supportive placements available to LGBTQ+ children who request or would benefit from them. It also created a formal process for children to report mistreatment, request a different placement, and seek help for caregivers. The rule barred retaliation and treated efforts to suppress or change a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity through conversion therapy as prohibited conduct. It did not require every foster parent to accept an LGBTQ+ child, nor did it require all foster homes to become designated placements. “The rule did not cover medical care for transgender foster youth. It just didn’t go there,” Kruse said. Instead, she explained, the rule was about trying to make an already difficult system less harmful for LGBTQ+ children by ensuring that foster parents who agreed to care for them in designated placements were trained and supportive.
Shame on you, RFK Jr.!
See Also:
LGBTQ Nation: Trump ends Biden-era rule supporting LGBTQ+ foster kids: “Puts children at risk… plain & simple”
