PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Nadia Swanson, Director of Advocacy and Technical Assistance at The Ali Forney Center
1:43:18
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141 sec
Nadia Swanson from The Ali Forney Center testified on Intro 56, suggesting amendments to lower the age for tracking LGBTQ+ data in foster care from 13 to 5 years old. They presented research supporting early identification and support for LGBTQ+ youth to reduce risks and improve outcomes.
- Cited Trevor Project research showing many LGBTQ+ youth come out before age 13
- Discussed developmental stages of gender identity formation starting at ages 3-4
- Emphasized the importance of early intervention and support for LGBTQ+ foster youth
Nadia Swanson
1:43:18
Hello, everyone.
1:43:19
My name is Nadia Swanson.
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I usually them pronouns.
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I'm the director of advocacy and technical assistance at the Alephornet Center.
1:43:26
Thank you for having this hearing today.
1:43:28
Thank you sticking around.
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Yes.
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And I'm a big thank you to commissioner Danhauser and Steven Gordon for really coming together and supporting us when we keep brought these recommendations to you and acting swiftly.
1:43:39
My testimony today, I'm gonna focus on intro 56, but our written will go into more detail on the other areas.
1:43:45
One thing is just an amendment where we suggest that the age be lowered from thirteen years old to five, that we start tracking this data and starting to talk to the foster youth about this.
1:43:57
The Trevor Project, among many other research findings, shows that youth are self identified or coming out at a younger age, even if they don't have the language yet.
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This is a dynamic process that often begins early in development.
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Survey was for thirteen to twenty four year olds and showed a sample of 24% of folks coming out before the age of thirteen.
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And when we just looked at thirteen and seventeen year olds and jumped to 35%.
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Those 13 those folks who came out under 13 also share that they have 56% of them have seriously considered suicide, and 22% had attempted.
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The report confirms what we know, the family support greatly diminishes these risks.
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For trans and gender expansive minors, we know that developmentally at ages 3 and 4, we begin understand gender in a societal context, developing over the next 2 years and becoming rigid at around five years old.
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Studies show that five is actually the average age that a young person knows that they have gender variance in some way with the mean being 7.9.
1:44:54
They just might not have the word to say it.
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I actually previously worked at Ackerman Institute, gender family projects that we were talking about today and went through that clinical training.
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I was in the 1st class of that.
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And the work that they do at Ackerman starts at five years old because of this data.
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We suggest that this lower, and we can provide different developmental questions and different stages throughout the person's process, the child's process.
1:45:19
By identifying early signs, you can run on further trauma of child's hiding their identity of fear, providing parents training and therapy for early childhood, which really benefits the kids from the constrained social construct, and ultimately reducing the need for more placements in the future if we can get that training in faster.
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Thank you.
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And how and answer any questions you have.
