Services for LGBT Youth in the Justice System

American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law
A link to information on the ABA Center on Children and the Law’s “Opening Doors” project, which is aimed at improving the legal system’s approach to LGBTQ youth in foster care.

American Civil Liberties Union
A link to the ACLU's website, which contains information about and court documents from R.G., et al. v. Koller, et al., a lawsuit in Hawaii which successfully challenged the discrimination, harassment, and abuse that three LGBT youth suffered at the hands of Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility (HYCF) staff and wards. The site also contains information about Limon v. Kansas, a successful challenge to state statutory provisions which punished homosexual sodomy between adults and children far more severly than heterosexual sodomy between adults and children.

Child Welfare League of America
A link to a page on CWLA's website that describes the CWLA/Lambda Joint LGBTQ Initiative.

Lambda Legal
A link to Lambda Legal's website, which includes information and resources related to Fostering Transitions, a CWLA/Lambda Legal Joint Initiative to change the way lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth and adults are treated in the nation’s foster care system.

National Juvenile Justice Network
A link to NJJN's website, which includes valuable resources regarding LGBT youth. In particular, the July, 2006 teleconference hosted by Jody Marksamer from the National Center on Lesbian Rights, Tamara Lange from the ACLU, and Mishi Faruqee from the Juvenile Justice Project of New York, provides information about best practice standards for the care of LGBT youth in institutions, successful recent litigation in Hawaii, and model legislation in New York.

National Prison Rape Elimination Commission
A link to the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission's website, which contains testimony from the June 1, 2006 hearing on the Elimination of Prison Rape: Focus on Juveniles. Included on the website is testimony from Cyryna Pasion, an 18-year-old transgender woman who described her horrifying experiences of sexual harassment and assault while incarcerated at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, and Dr. Robert Bidwell, a pediatrician who works at the Honolulu Juvenile Detention Facility and the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility. Dr. Bidwell testified in support of the creation of national standards of care and confinement that specifically address the experience and needs of LGBT youth. Referencing the ACLU lawsuit R.G. v. Koller, Dr. Bidwell explains that the daily harassment of LGBT youth in detention facilities seriously and negatively impacts them.