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Listserv
Equity Project Listserv
The Equity Project Listserv is an email discussion list for juvenile justice
professionals nationwide who are interested in issues relating to the
experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth (LGBT) in the
juvenile justice system. Members of the list can use the forum to pose
questions, share ideas, and post information related to LGBT youth in
delinquency and status offense cases. The Listserv was created by the
Equity Project (www.equityproject.org), a national initiative to ensure
fairness, dignity, and respect for LGBT youth in delinquency courts. To
join this list, please contact us at info@equityproject.org.
General
And by the Way, Do You Know He Thinks He's a Girl? The Failures of Law, Policy, and Legal Representation for Transgender Youth in Delinquency Courts
Jody Marksamer, Sexuality Research & Social Policy, Vol. 5, No. 1 March 2008
Transgender youth are at high risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system. This article discusses how law, policy, and legal representation are regularly failing transgender youth in juvenile delinquency systems nationwide, and provides policy and system recommendations for addressing these failures.
Equity Project Advisory Committee
Resource CD
Table of Contents
The Equity Project (2007)
This annotated table of contents provides a compilation of resources relating to LGBT youth in the juvenile justice system, including training materials. Please contact The Equity Project for copies of specific materials mentioned in this document.
Justice for All? A Report on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Youth in the New York Juvenile Justice System
Urban Justice Center (2001)
This report, the first of its kind, documents the discrimination and bias against LGBT youth that pervades New York’s juvenile justice system. The report concludes with recommendations for professionals in the juvenile justice system to help improve the treatment of LGBT youth.
Legal Rights of LGBTQ Youth in the Juvenile Justice System
National Center for Lesbian Rights (June, 2006 )
LGBT young people in the juvenile justice system have clearly-established civil rights under the U. S. Constitution, as well as state and federal statutes. This user-friendly fact sheet provides an overview of these rights.
LGBT Youth in Detention: Myth and Reality
NY Juvenile Justice Coalition
A fact sheet created by the New York Juvenile Justice Coalition on some myths and realities about LGBT youth in juvenile detention facilities.
Best Practices and Models
10 Tips: Working with LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) Youth
Office of the Public Defender, City and County of San Francisco
Ten suggestions to help juvenile defenders build positive and effective relationships with their LGBT clients.
Coming Out for Kids: Recognizing, Respecting, and Representing LGBTQ Youth
Barbara Fedders, Harvard Law School Criminal Justice Institute (2006)
An article on the need for lawyers to recognize the ways in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youths are uniquely vulnerable to abuse, violence, and discrimination, so that lawyers can be effective and zealous advocates for LGBTQ young people. Fedders argues that the adaptive behaviors engaged in by LGBTQ youth may often render them vulnerable to involvement and struggles in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Rather than identifying LGBTQ clients for special treatment, Fedders encourages lawyers for juveniles to adopt practice strategies that are sensitive to and supportive of all youth regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.
CWLA Best Practice Guidelines: Serving LGBT Youth in Out-of-Home Care
Shannan Wilber, Caitlin Ryan, and Jody Marksamer (June, 2006)
A set of comprehensive guidelines, published by the Child Welfare League of America, that articulate the constitutional and statutory obligations of public systems serving LGBT youth in out-of-home care in both child welfare and juvenile justice forums. The guidelines address the systematic shortcomings of the juvenile justice system in meeting the needs of LGBT youth, and attempt to provide insight into the unique challenges confronting LGBT youths in out-of-home facilities. The eight topical areas covered in the guidelines cover a range of LGBT youth issues, the ways in which these issues may affect the attorney-client relationship, and the steps that can be taken by individuals to ensure that LGBT youths in institutional settings are afforded proper care and treatment.
Defending LGBTQ Youth
Model Standards Project (2005)
Advice for juvenile defenders on building rapport with and representing youth who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning. Juvenile defenders should be aware of how sexual orientation can affect delinquency proceedings, including the tendency to charge youth as sex offenders based on consensual same-sex conduct, the fact that many LGBTQ youth suffer discrimination and abuse, and the need to ensure that LGBTQ youth receive an appropriate and safe disposition.
Report of the Working Group on the Role of Sex and Sexuality
UNLV Conference on Representing Children in Families: Children’s Advocacy and Justice Ten Years After Fordham (Spring, 2006)
Coming out of the UNLV Conference on Representing Children in Families, these practice recommendations are aimed at assisting lawyers working with young LGBT clients. The report recommends that lawyers should strive to ensure that their own internal biases do not compromise the quality and effectiveness of their advocacy, should seek to remedy bias or discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or sexual conduct of their child clients, and should advocate for law and policy changes to promote systems of care that are faire, safe and respectful of each child’s dignity.
Advocacy
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, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Jody Marksamer, National Center for Lesbian Rights (forthcoming Temple L. Rev., Summer, 2006)
An article that highlights the difficulties faced by the disproportionately high numbers of LGBT youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. The authors address the key arguments made by attorneys on behalf of LGBT youth in state custody and the many ways lawyers can use civil rights principles to stimulate policy reform and encourage systematic changes in institutional conditions. The article pairs statements made by LGBT youths in both systems with the authors’ specific recommendations as to how the rights of LGBT youth have been violated while in state custody as a means of illustrating both legal and non-legal strategies attorneys can use to remedy injustices, combat discrimination, and promote the civil rights of LGBT youth.
Letter from Equity Project to the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights
This letter was written to oppose the proposed amendments to the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations which would have exempted the Department of Corrections for the gender identity and expression provision of the D.C. Human Rights Act.
Equity Project Comments on the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission’s Standards for the Prevention, Detection, Response, and Monitoring of Sexual Abuse in Juvenile Facilities
In August, 2008, the Equity Project submitted these comments regarding the draft standards created by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission to prevent, detect, respond to, and monitor sexual abuse in juvenile facilities. The comments focus on the needs of LGBT youth.
Litigation
Doe v. Bell
194 Misc.2d 774, 754 N.Y.S.2d 846 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2003)
A New York Superior Court ruling that a transgender youth’s Gender Identity Disorder constitutes a disability within the meaning of the State Human Rights Law. As such, the court required the New York City Administration for Children’s Services to make reasonable dress code accommodations for the youth’s disability. The petitioner was granted exemption from the dress policy and permitted to wear feminine clothing in the all-male foster care facility.
R.G. v. Koller
415 F. Supp. 2d 1129 (D. Haw. 2006) For other court documents in this case, please see http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/youth/25796res20050902.html
Three youths who identify as or who are perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender filed a motion for preliminary injunction seeking relief from the discrimination, harassment, and verbal, physical, and sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility (HYCF) staff and wards. The court partially granted the plaintiff’s preliminary injunction on due process grounds, finding that the conditions at HYCF were physically and psychologically unsafe for the plaintiffs. The court ruled that the defendants were deliberately indifferent to the health and safety of the plaintiffs in failing to provide (1) policies and training necessary to protect LGBT youth, (2) adequate staffing and supervision, (3) a functioning grievance system, and (4) a classification system to protect vulnerable youth. The court found that the practices of isolating the LGBT youths, ostensibly for their protection, and failing to protect them from physical and psychological abuse were clear violations of due process.
Declaration of Dr. Robert J. Bidwell in R.G. v. Koller
(Sept., 2005)
Declaration from the treating physician at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility (HYCF) regarding the state of affairs for LGBT youth in the HYCF. Dr. Bidwell affirms the plaintiffs’ claims that they had been harassed and abused based on the belief that they are LGBT teens.
State v. Limon
280 Kan. 275, 122 P.3d 22 (Kan. 2005)
A defendant convicted of a sexual offense challenged state statutory provisions which punished homosexual sodomy between adults and children far more severely than heterosexual sodomy between adults and children. The Kansas Supreme Court struck the disparate sentencing rules from the statute, holding that the statutory distinction violated equal protection under both the Federal and State Constitutions.
Policies
LGBT Sample Proposed Policy: Non-Discriminatory, Developmentally-Sound Treatment of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Youth
Marty Beyer (May 31, 2006)
Based on Dr. Beyer’s work as an expert in the R.G. v. Koller litigation in Hawaii, this proposed sample policy establishes operational guidelines for good child care practices and training to respond to the gender identity and sexual orientation of youth in care.
Model Anti-Harassment Policy and Non-Discrimination
Policy for Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Agencies
National Center for Lesbian Rights (June, 2006)
This publication provides child welfare and juvenile justice professionals and youth advocates with a sample anti-harassment and non-discrimination policy for child welfare and juvenile justice agencies. The sample policy describes agencies’ legal responsibility to create a safe and supportive environment for all youth, including those who are LGBT. It also includes concrete examples of prohibited harassment, reporting procedures, and required administrative responses to reports of harassment and discrimination.