PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Erin Beth Harrist, Director of the LGBTQ+ Unit at Legal Aid Society
1:40:45
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149 sec
Erin Beth Harrist, Director of the LGBTQ+ Unit at Legal Aid Society, provided testimony on the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ youth in the foster care system. She highlighted issues of discrimination, lack of safety, and inadequate access to gender-affirming care, emphasizing the need for more accountability and training.
- Harrist noted that many LGBTQ+ youth do not feel safe in their placements and face overt discrimination, including misgendering and restrictions on gender expression.
- She mentioned cases of transgender clients being housed in facilities inconsistent with their gender identity and issues with access to transition-related care.
- Harrist also raised concerns about clinicians misinterpreting same-sex attraction as "boundary issues," leading to more restrictive housing for LGBTQ+ youth.
Erin Beth Harrist
1:40:45
Hi.
1:40:45
Good afternoon.
1:40:46
Thank you so much to the committees for holding this hearing today.
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My name is Erin Beth Harris.
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Are you sure they pronouns?
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And I'm the director of the legal aid society's LGBTQ plus unit.
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And I work with our juvenile rights practice, which represents the majority of kids in foster care in New York City to address systemic issues impacting our LGBTQ plus youth clients.
1:41:09
I will say, you know, we appreciate that ACS comes to the table.
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I appreciate their action plan, but we know from day to day work that it isn't enough and that there needs to be more done.
1:41:21
Just to give a couple of examples and we've talked about these already today, you know, we know that a lot of our LGBTQ plus youth clients do not feel safe to be themselves in their placements.
1:41:30
And sometimes they're overtly discriminated against, they're misnaming and misgendering, not being able to express their gender, the way that is natural to who they are.
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We've had trans clients housed in facilities that are not consistent with their gender identity, and we've had a lot of issues with access to transition related care.
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Just a couple months ago, we heard about a young person who was told their transition related care was considered cosmetic.
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And therefore, that it wasn't something that was gonna be provided by the agency, and that's wrong as a matter of policy, that's wrong as a matter of law.
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We've also had clients where the discrimination is a little less overt, but this involves clinicians who will hear that somebody has, you know, same sex attraction and consider them to have boundary issues with boundaries with their peers, and they end and more restrictive housing because of it.
1:42:22
Right?
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So we know that the clinicians, that we also need more accountability and training there as well.
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And I also want to emphasize because this is something that comes up quite a bit, has already been referred to a lot during this hearing, LGBTQ youth leave their placements more frequently than other youth.
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They experience homelessness as a result, and what does it say about the system that they feel safer being homeless or being marginally housed than they do in their placements.
1:42:50
Just briefly, you know, we put all our recommendations into our
Althea V. Stevens
1:42:54
10 seconds,
Erin Beth Harrist
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into our testimony.
1:42:57
I did wanna raise the issue of ACS taking dollars in survivor's benefit from ACS views.
1:43:03
This wasn't raised today, but it does impact youth and foster care and that ACS needs to change this policy immediately.
Althea V. Stevens
1:43:10
Don't worry.
1:43:10
We'll be discussing it with the hearings.
1:43:12
I got it.
Erin Beth Harrist
1:43:13
That's great.
1:43:13
Thank you so much.
