Child welfare and foster care systems do not provide the care and affirmation that LGBTQ youth need. GLAD is currently working with youth advocacy organizations to intervene in these systems for better cultural competency and to dismantle other systemic inequities like racism and the criminalization of poverty. By sharing your personal experience, you can help in the fight to get policies updated on how child welfare staff and prospective foster families treat the young people in their custody.

We want to hear from you if you’ve had experience with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. Have you experienced any of the following?

  • You are/were a youth in foster care in a foster home or placement that doesn’t/didn’t respect your gender identity, or is/was LGBTQ-unaffirming or otherwise harmful.
  • You are/were a youth in foster care who has faced delay/obstruction in accessing gender affirming care
  • You are an adult who has been subject to discrimination in the system, including separation from a child due to a lack of legal parent-child relationship
  • You are an adult who supports or works with DCF-involved youth 

PLEASE SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE BELOW