Bill would mandate LGBTQ training for Nevada foster families, social workers

CARSON CITY — Foster parents and social workers would be trained in gender identity and understanding the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth under a bill heard Monday the Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services.

Assembly Bill 99, sponsored by Nelson Araujo, D-Las Vegas, would add discussion of transgender issues to existing training requirements for foster parents.

It also requires state and local agencies to consider a child’s gender identity when deciding placements and to set up procedures to handle placement grievances.

Araujo said LGBTQ youth are often subjected to abuse, neglect and discrimination, increasing their risk of homelessness, despair and suicide.

Araujo said 14 states have laws addressing the needs of transgender children in foster care laws.

Supporters of the bill said the changes could help countless children who come into the child social services network already victimized by life experiences only to face new trauma in the foster care system over gender identity.

Tristan Torres of Las Vegas, a transgender foster youth alumni, said he ended up in the foster care system after coming out about his gender identity to his mother.

“When I got into my first foster home, I thought I’d be safe and welcome despite my transgender status, but exactly the opposite happened,” Torres told members of the Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services.

His time at that home ended when his foster parent told him to stay away from her three biological kids because he was turning them into transgender, he said.

The experience at his second foster home was not much better.

“They called me a freak and explained that I would never be able to convince anyone to respect me as a man,” Torres said.

Allen Johnson was in foster care in Las Vegas from age 12 to 16. He recalled his foster mother isolating him from the younger children because she thought his sexual orientation was a sign of perversion. His social worker told him he was going through a phase.

About 4,700 children are in Nevada’s foster care system, said Brooke Maylath of Transgender Allies Group in Reno. Based on national statistics, she said as many as 800 may identify with the LGBTQ community.

Some committee members questioned whether the added instruction would cause some foster parents to drop out of the system.

“I am concerned about the unintended negative consequences of mandatory training,” said Assemblywoman Robin Titus, R-Wellington.

Supporters of the bill said the intent was to incorporate discussions into the existing training format.

“We don’t want this to be something separate,” said Denise Tanata, executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Alliance, who added foster parents and others involved in the process already undergo many hours of training.

No one testified against the bill and no immediate action was taken by the committee.

Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3821. Follow @SandraChereb on Twitter.