Trans Awareness Week Archives - GAYFRIENDSCHAT.com

Adoption is a Trans Issue

Post submitted by Nia Clark, HRC Foundation All Children – All Families Trainer

November is National Adoption Month, a time to raise awareness of the thousands of children and youth in the U.S. who are awaiting adoption every year.

For youth in foster care, being adopted into a loving and permanent family can be hard for many reasons. I entered foster care when I was 8-years-old. For years, the system failed to give me the supportive and affirming care I needed as an LGBTQ person.

When I was legally adopted at 16, I was just beginning to affirm myself as a young Black trans girl. However, I was forced to choose between my gender identity or having a permanent home and family. When I finally gathered the courage to tell my adoptive mother my truth, she terminated the adoption, just six months after my placement. I was forced back into foster care.

Rather than allowing these experiences to negatively impact my outlook on the future, I decided to use my personal narrative to change the system as a child welfare advocate, practitioner and trainer for HRC Foundation’s All Children – All Families project.

Adoption is a trans issue, a bi issue, a pan issue — an LGBTQ issue.

In my work as a trainer and educator, I help adoption and foster care professionals understand the issues faced by trans folks and the broader LGBTQ community and how being an LGBTQ-inclusive agency can affirm and sometimes save the lives of the youth they serve.

This National Adoption Month, it’s important to consider how LGBTQ people can make all the difference for these youth: as advocates, as prospective parents, as professionals and as a community that knows every child deserves a loving home.

HRC is making an impact by raising awareness of the discrimination and systemic obstacles LGBTQ youth as well as LGBTQ prospective parents face through educational resources and telling powerful stories, like those of Sam and Nakiya.

Every year more than 20,000 young people age out of foster care without being adopted.

Depending on the state in which they live, youth in the foster care system “age out” when they reach a certain age, or when they finish high school. When I aged out of the system at 22, I was homeless for more than three months. I had no safety net to fall back on and the foster care system didn’t equip me with the independent living skills I needed to survive. I had to learn how to do everything on my own. My story is far too common, and many of today’s youth face the same struggles I did.

Even as more and more stories of adoption or experiencing the foster care system come to light through shows like The Fosters or through people sharing their stories, overall awareness and understanding remains low. This month and every month, we must continue to raise awareness about foster care adoption among our friends, families and communities.

Join us to make a real difference by educating others.

Together, we can ensure that youth — especially those that are at the intersections of being Black and LGBTQ — are cared for and given the permanent families they deserve. That’s why HRC’s All Children – All Families project is so important to me. Change is made when we educate, empower and energize to help vulnerable communities. In honor of Trans Awareness Week and National Adoption Month, share this blog post and follow HRC on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as they share these life-changing stories and resources.

If you’re interested in learning about the findings from HRC’s 2019 survey on LGBTQ adult experiences and perceptions of adoption.

The public opinion information in this post comes from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoptions 2017 US Adoption Attitudes Survey conducted by Harris Poll.

Learn more about the work of All Children – All Families to promote LGBTQ cultural competency in adoption and foster care at hrc.org/acaf. Want to stay up-to-date on All Children – All Families resources and activities? Subscribe to “Field Forward,” the program’s monthly e-newsletter at hrc.im/field-forward.#NationalAdoptionMonth

www.hrc.org/blog/adoption-is-a-trans-issue?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Ensuring Competent Care for Transgender and Non-Binary People

While communities around the country observe Trans Awareness Week, in one Texas city, advocates have shifted the narrative.

The Mahogany Project and Save Our Sisters, two Houston-based organizations, have founded Black Trans Empowerment Week to “not only to memorialize those who have been tragically taken, but to charge forward into the empowered future they envision for all transgender people.”

For Houston community health advocate Donte Oxun, it’s exciting to see.

“Even in the light of so much transphobia and racism from our government and from some parts of society, to see my community be like, ‘You know what? We’re not just remembering our dead.’ We actually have so much more work to do, and we’re going to do all of it,’” they told HRC.

Oxun has worked in HIV and public health spaces since 2009, shortly after they were diagnosed with HIV — something that propelled them into speaking out.

“Like many people who are gender diverse and of color, my life was definitely touched by HIV even before I was living with HIV,” Oxun said. “I have family members who I lost to HIV when I was pretty young.”

“I’ve always been a bit of a loudmouth and a person who understands and relates with people who struggle,” they continued. “So, the way I dealt with my HIV diagnosis was to be really public about it at first. It’s important to humanize our perspective and really show that people can live regular lives and that we deserve to have our stories told.”

In their work with Legacy Community Health in Houston, Oxun is a lead patient advocate, primarily helping patients — particularly trans and non-binary patients — living with HIV or Hepatitis C to navigate the health care system and receive the care they need. Legacy has been offering gender-affirming, LGBTQ-competent care for young people and adults for more than 30 years, Oxun said.

“Competent care is a challenge,” they said. “We shouldn’t have to negotiate between parts of our identities when seeking care is already a challenge.”

Texas has one of the highest populations of uninsured people, reminds Oxun. Obstacles to accessing care range from poverty and socioeconomic status to fear of stigma or violence — something on the minds of many as we draw closer to commemorating Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Of the 22 known transgender or gender non-conforming people killed this year, four of those victims were killed in Texas. All four of the trans people killed in Texas this year were Black transgender women — something that matters when talking about how to support and provide services for the local transgender community.

“Violence affects people’s health care,” Oxun said. “When a person doesn’t feel safe to catch the bus to walk down the street, they’re going to be less likely to see a doctor. They’re going to be less likely to pick up their prescriptions. They’re going to be less likely to get access to care.”

Until those barriers are dismantled and addressed, transgender and gender non-conforming people will continue to face higher rates of discrimination, poverty, homelessness and violence not just in Texas but around the country.

“No matter who you are, if you’re working in any form of health care, you’re going to interact with somebody who’s gender diverse,” Oxun said. “You may not know it, they may not be comfortable reporting it to you, but you are. It’s about seeing them as a whole person.”

For information for LGBTQ people seeking to learn more about access to care, particularly under the Affordable Care Act, click here.

www.hrc.org/blog/ensuring-competent-care-for-transgender-and-non-binary-people?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

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