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79 Temp. L. Rev. 415 (2006)
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Young People in State Custody: Making the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems Safe for All Youth through Litigation, Advocacy, and Education

handle is hein.journals/temple79 and id is 423 raw text is: LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER YOUNG PEOPLE IN STATE CUSTODY: MAKING THE CHILD WELFARE AND JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEMS SAFE FOR ALL YOUTH THROUGH LITIGATION, ADVOCACY, AND EDUCATION Rudy Estrada* and Jody Marksamer** I. INTRODUCrION There are thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendert (LGBT) young people in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems throughout the country. Unfortunately, these systems routinely subject LGBT youth to differential treatment, deny them appropriate services, and fail to protect them from violence and harassment.2 Increasingly, through lawsuits and other system * Rudy Estrada is a staff attorney at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. Lambda Legal is the country's oldest and largest civil rights organization for LGBT people and people with HIV. The organization is known for such landmark cases as the 2003 United States Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), striking down the Texas same-sex sodomy law and its groundbreaking work on foster care, including its 2001 publication, LAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATION FUND, YOUTH IN THE MARGINS: A REPORT ON THE UNMET NEEDS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER ADOLESCENTS IN FOSTER CARE (2001). ** Jody Marksamer is a staff attorney at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR). NCLR is a national legal resource center with a primary commitment to advancing the rights and safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. NCLR was founded in 1977 and serves more than 5,000 clients each year, including youth clients in all fifty states. NCLR has an extensive history of providing legal support to LGBT youth and working for institutional and policy change to protect the rights of LGBT youth, with considerable success particularly in safe schools work. In recent years, NCLR has also developed a complementary component of this work that addresses the specific needs of LGBT youth in state care. 1. We use the term transgender to describe individuals who have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from that traditionally associated with their sex assigned at birth. The phrase gender identity refers to the internal identification or self-image of gender. For most people, their gender identity is consistent with their sex assigned at birth; however, for transgender individuals, their gender identity differs from their assigned sex. A transgender woman is a transgender individual who identifies as female, and a transgender man is a transgender individual who identifies as male. Some transgender individuals experience clinically significant distress or impairment in important areas of functioning in relation to their gender identities. These individuals may be diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder. According to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Gender Identity Disorder is described as a strong and persistent cross-gender identification and persistent discomfort about one's assigned sex or a sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex, which causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. AM. PSYCHIATRIC ASS'N, DSM-IV: DIAGNOSTIC & STATISTICAL MANUAL OF MENTAL DISORDERS 532-33 (4th ed. 1994). 2. The types of harassment that LGBT youth experience include verbal abuse, such as derogatory name calling, demeaning and insulting comments, and threats of physical or emotional acts

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