The Inequitable Treatment of LGBTQ+ Youth Placed in the USA: Publicly Administered State Child Welfare Foster Care System

This chapter offers a look at the sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth population who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex (LGBTQI+), or any nonheterosexual orientation, gender identity, or expression (SOGIE) within the context of the United States (US) publicly administered state child welfare foster care system. For the purpose of this chapter, child welfare system refers to the global network of public and private organizations and governmental agencies linked to the administration, casework, family preservation services, healthcare, out-of-home placements, and other child welfare-related services. While the term foster care varies across countries and cultures, in this chapter, foster care refers to the full-time temporary custody of youth removed from the home of their biological parents or other primary caregiver and for whom the state has placement and care responsibility. Foster care encompasses placement of youth into licensed foster or adoptive family homes, congregate care/group homes, treatment facilities, residential care centers, relatives, nonrelative (fictive kin) guardians, or other state authorize placement settings. The term “youth” represents children and adolescents under the age of 18. Finally, this chapter has a bias toward a predominantly European-Western cultural lens of the USA in describing and interpreting the experiences of SGM youth in foster care. The chapter is organized around the following topic sections: