Pointlessly Harms Trans Youth
Written by Andi Bazaar | July 3, 2022
"One of the hardest parts of being a social worker is hearing about trans-kids who have been lured by adults who prey on their vulnerability by promising social affirmation or access to healthcare."
Trans Youth are constantly having to run because they face hostile placements, poorly trained staff and non-affirming families. Ace Scott death highlights the lethal danger of an apathetic political environment that trivializes the mental health challenges of trans youth.
I want to be up front, I only know what I've read with respect to Ace's story. I'd dint know him or his family of origin or the workers working with him. This is not an indictment or finger pointing, this is a call to action for trans-kids who are dying in our streets.
I've never in the 12 years old or so years I've been a social worker come across at DFC office capable of treating trans-kids with a shred of dignity. "Individual workers?" Absolutely! Some are incredible but the system is overtly hostile to trans-kids andthey know it.
One of the emerging themes in both qualitative research and clinical practice that needs much more attention is the relationship between anti-trans political climates and homelessness, many kids feel they must run to seek blockers or HRT black market. Ban bills accelerate this.
For a decades, trans-youth have sought refuge in dangerous places or had to find often dangerous DIY HRT methods. In the last century for trans-girls this was often in the form of high concentrations of premarin creams marketed for "beauty," which carry massively high DVT risks.
For transmasculine-youth, this can mean relying on underground markets of testosterone aimed at body builders, sold by unscrupulous dealers.
One of the hardest parts of being a social worker is hearing about trans-kids who have been lured by adults who prey on their vulnerability by promising social affirmation or access to healthcare, they rely on hostile climates to make youth vulnerable to manipulation.
In hospitals and healthcare environments, chronically suicidal youth have their concerns dismissed by staff who've read anti-trans clinicians and pundits opine about "threatening suicide to get their way." — this is a popular topic of conversion therapy proponents like Brewer.
Conversely, the constantly floundering position of WPATH, now making it harder for youth to access blockers safely under medical supervision means "many kids feel that they have to elevate their risk profile to have their dysphoria taken seriously, they're in a hellacious bind."
Youth supports are also under a microscope, with laws making it harder for kids to find safe adults like: (FL, AL, TX, TN and GA, MO) is trying to force teachers and workers to out LGBTQIA+ Youth regardless of safety risk. This means kids trust adults less, have fewer safe outlets.
This means youth who are thinking of running or scared to come out can't confide in school personnel and especially DCF (youth services and child protection) workers. This is what happens when we take supports away "youth die."
Please, if you know trans kids find a way to make it clear that you will support them, affirm them and keep them safe regardless of the environment or policies. Make sure they know you will care about them and take them seriously, trust can literally save children's lives.
A couple of important things I want to add, there are additional barriers to identifying and safely finding homes for trans youth who are currently homeless. These are totally unnecessary institutional hurdles to trans-youth safety we can dismantle today:
The central resource for locating children on the run especially those at risk of being trafficked is the Nat'l Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Missing Kids. As "Trans Doe Task Force," has reported previously NCMEC publishes all missing posters by policy under legal names.
This not only signals to kids that they're not being seen or taken seriously, it signifies that NCMEC is not a safe space for trans people. There are logistical hurdles too, well-meaning adults who approach youth they see on the streets will likely misgender and deadname them.
This is a completely avoidable obstacle, especially considering that many trans-youth may present in a gender that is different than the gendered connotations of their name. This outs trans youth who have run away making them infinitely less safe in the process. This is absurd!
Additionally, the lack of space for trans identity and proper gender markers means that youth are often misidentified. Trans-youth who go missing are at increased risk if their gender markers and names aren't updated because they're harder for people to identify when found.
It also puts vulnerable youth in a potentially defensive position when interacting with hospitals and other service providers, the misgendering may be accidental but it's often a large component of the very trigger that lead to kids going missing in the first place.
These are completely avoidable problems, making it easier for youth to update their markers and names would make trans-kids so much safer, facilitate them accessing healthcare and helping systems while on the run, hopefully ensuring they come home (or to a new home) safely.
We have the power to change these things today, there's nothing that requires us to deadname kids. Electronic medical records can be fixed and updated to include accurate gender or name information, we can record more than one name field if we have to and we have no excuse not to.
“The consequence of this that’s most devastating is that this is why trans-youth are often not found when they go missing, we have to identify bodies of trans youth lost in the system.”
A Special Thanks To:
- Oliver Schofield (Co-wrote)
- Clayton Euridicé Schofield (Journalist/Consulting)
- Henrie Louis Friedrich (Analyst)
- Timothée Freimann schofield (Photographed)
- Introducing: Emmanuel Piero-luccá Schofield
