The Florida Department of Children and Families has reinstated a proposal explicitly banning bullying and harassment of LGBT foster children in group homes — including so-called gay-to-straight conversion therapy — after a public outcry by civil rights groups, child-welfare advocates and former foster youth.
DCF is also creating a position for a full-time ombudsman who will address complaints of discrimination from any child in the foster system via an anonymous hotline, officials said.
“This has been a process of basically just listening to all involved,” DCF Secretary Mike Carroll said Wednesday. “Our role is really not political, and this is not a political fight for the bigger issue of gay rights. It’s specifically about how you best protect young people who have already been abused and neglected and who are the most vulnerable in our system.”
The proposed rules ban facility staff from any “attempt to change or discourage a child’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”
Equality Florida, the state’s main lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights group, applauded the decision.
“After months of lobbying with other child-welfare advocates for these changes, we are so relieved and encouraged that the department is doing the right thing,” said spokeswoman Hannah Willard. “I think the department heard us loud and clear that removing these protections for [LGBT] youth sends a dangerous message of empowering those who would do us harm. It’s undeniable that homophobia and bigotry are alive and well in our state.”
Carroll said the June 12 shootings at the gay Pulse nightclub, which killed 49 people and injured more than 50 others, had no influence on the changes, which were already underway. But he added that they underscored the need for children to feel safe.
“Our job is to protect [foster youth] not just from abuse and neglect, but to protect what makes each of them special,” he said.
But the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops criticized the revised proposal.
“The rule goes too far in failing to consider the well-being of other children in a residential facility,” said the conference’s executive director, Michael Sheedy in an email. “Many of these children are victims of abuse, and may not be well-served by sharing a household or even a bedroom with someone who ‘identifies’ as the same gender, but remains biologically different.”
To address such issues, DCF plans long-term training for foster parents from nationally recognized authorities, Willard said.
“We’ll continue to work with the department as this is implemented,” she said. “We know proper placement is the No. 1 factor in how well children fare in foster care.”
Scott McCoy, senior policy counsel with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the percentage of LGBT youth in foster homes is up to twice that in the general population — often because they are kicked out by their families.
“So there’s the initial psychological trauma of losing your family and then you go into a system only to be traumatized again,” McCoy said. The reinstated provisions make better public policy, he added.
The protections against bullying are virtually identical to the department’s original proposal issued late last year for the state’s 360 group homes, all of which segregate girls and boys. According to DCF documents, Carroll approved the proposed changes and set a hearing for Jan. 11.
Soon afterward, though, officials from the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Florida Baptist Children’s Home filed objections to the LGBT language, asking that it be removed — and the department complied.
The Florida Baptist Children’s Home did not respond to a request for comment.
Carroll said Wednesday that the department was “trying to find language that could accommodate everyone” and that “the last thing we want to do is alienate any group that serves kids because there’s room out there for everybody.”
“The department’s intention was always to protect every child from discrimination and bullying,” he said.
No foster parent who is uncomfortable taking in an LGBT youth would be forced to do so, he said.
The latest changes, published by the state this week, could be subject to another hearing if opponents request one. But another hearing does not necessarily mean the proposal would be changed a third time, Carroll said.
“I hope that folks understand what we’re trying to do here. When we remove a child from a home … or a child has been kicked out of a home, our work just begins. Because if we don’t help them heal from the trauma they’ve suffered … they become at risk for so many other things” — including suicide, drug abuse, human trafficking and homelessness, the secretary said.
ksantich@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5503
