foster parents' "personal views"

[redbird]

Posting this by request, as she wrote it:

The Boston Globe is soliciting opinions on whether or not foster parents's views on children being queer or trans should be taken into account.

MSN link

Basically, we have to explain not only that water is wet but that if foster parents are allowed to dunk a trans kid into the tank of their transphobia the kid can drown in there. The Globe's editorial board termed this a matter of "personal views" and of DCF demanding foster parents be "perfect", which is glaringly disingenuous but needs to be spelled out to hopefully influence public opinion.

The Globe's address is community@boston.com.

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

I think it's obvious that sending a trans kid to transphobic foster parents would be a disaster. Sometimes children need foster care BECAUSE of transphobic abuse at home.

But they're probably thinking transgender foster kids are rare and obvious, and the transphobic fosterers can just take the other ones. You can sign up and say, "Nobody under 5" or "no sets of siblings," and the people making the assignment can recognize that at the hospital or police station or whatever emergency takes the child from their parents. There's an awfully high risk of accidentally sending a trans kid to a transphobic foster family. Either because the kid is closeted or just because gender is not the first thing they talk about when their parents die or get detained.