LGBTQ2S+ Leaders
Our 2021-22 design program worked with LGBTQ+ and Two-spirit Fosters from across the state, who shared their expertise on the challenges and opportunities for LGBTQ2S+ Fosters in the MN child welfare system.
This Know Your Rights guide was envisioned our LGBTQ2S+ Leaders, who identified the need to clarify LGBTQ2S+ rights in foster care to support their peers in the Minnesota child welfare system.
Thank you to the Institute to Transform Child Protection for legal research and compilation and Gender Justice for consultation!
Last updated 6/2023
LGBTQ2S+ Fosters Know Your Rights Guide!
Our LGBTQ2s+ Leaders were published in the Star Tribune on August 27th, 2022!
“Being a queer foster is an isolating and challenging experience. While we have learned to celebrate our identities, it's bittersweet to do so when we've experienced discrimination from the very system that is meant to protect us.”
LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit Fosters Photovoice gallery is live!
Our LGBTQ2S+ Leaders are excited to present to you their collaborative photovoice project. Designed by LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit Foster leaders in Minnesota as a safe and accepting way for our voices to be heard.
Our COVID-19 report in 2020 was the first comprehensive data collected, to Foster Advocates’ knowledge, on Minnesota Fosters’ gender identity and sexual orientation. One-third of respondents identified as LGBTQ+, a trend backed up by our spring 2021 research in Hennepin County. We wanted to learn more about the experiences of this overrepresented group, the supports they receive, as well as explore unmet needs.
Our LGBTQ2S+ Leaders helped illuminate a more complete picture, identifying core issues and ideas related to the consistency of system support, expanding affirming care, increasing cultural connections and identity knowledge for Fosters, clarifying LGBTQ2S+ rights in care, and overrepresentation without visibility. They also identified a range of solutions for connection and systems-change.
The group took several actions to test out their ideas:
To explore ways for the child welfare system to track sexual orientation and gender identity data with best practices for safety and confidentiality, Foster Advocates staff in spring 2022 to do research and build connections with national partners, including the SOGIE Center.
To create a safe and accepting way for peer voices to be heard, they developed an LGBTQ2S+ Photovoice project.
To clarify LGBTQ2S+ Fosters rights in care, Foster Advocates staff were directed identify local legal partners to create a shareable resource, vetted by LGBTQ2S+ Leaders along the way (download Know Your Rights guide).
To elevate the need for affirming care, accessible resources, data collection and rights procedures, LGBTQ2S+ wrote a recommendation letter, shared with the Department of Human Services in June 2022, and an oped, published in the Star Tribune in August 2022.