For thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youths, coming out to their families is often a frightening and life-changing event. Unfortunately, this event is often made even more frightening by their parents ordering them out of the family home. Because some parents, far too frequently, disown their children after learning that their child is gay, there is a disproportionately high amount of LGBT youths in the foster care system. Every year around 3,000 children, in the city of Philadelphia, enter the foster care system, and as many as 40 percent of those children identify themselves as being a member of the LGBT community. Sadly, once in the system, they continue to face discrimination, harassment, abuse and neglect because of their sexual orientation.

National surveys conducted by juvenile justice researchers regarding LGBT youths in the foster care system paint a bleak picture of the lives of LGBT foster children. One survey found that a majority of LGBT teens in foster care reported harassment and abuse, which ranged from being called derogatory names to being physically and sexually abused because of their sexual orientation. Already shunned and oftentimes abused by their biological family, many LGBT youths report that once placed with a foster family, the abuse only continues. Even foster parents with the best of intentions are often uneducated and ill-informed about raising an LGBT foster child, and instead of trying to understand the special needs of the child, they abuse, neglect, or aim to change the child’s sexual orientation by force.

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