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TexasTowelie

(111,322 posts)
Mon Mar 16, 2015, 11:27 PM Mar 2015

Transgender Teens Struggle In Foster Care

Alex lived with her family in a nice home in an affluent San Antonio suburb, where she had all the comforts and advantages that come with that life. Although she was born male, Alex identifies as a female, a revelation that led to friction with her family and her eventual estrangement from them.

“My mother and I would argue and then I would run away. I would run away so much that Child Protective Services eventually took me away,” Alex recalled.

Alex’s experiences after she was placed in the foster-care system were no better. She says the families she was sent to live with were never told of her gender identity. “CPS didn’t tell them until I was already placed within the home,” she said. She also remembers counselors and psychologists whom she says would attempt to confuse her. “There would always be something mentally wrong with me. Every year, I was required to have a psychological exam, but the psychologist that I was forced to see–he would creep me out. He said that I wanted to be something that I was not.”

“If they had asked me questions, it would have made me feel like someone actually cared about me,” Alex added. “I would constantly ask myself, why can’t people see me the way that I want to be seen?” Ultimately she ended up on the street. “I just wanted to die. I didn’t see any happiness for myself. I just wanted a shower and a home. I was so weak and dizzy and tired and hungry.”

Read more: http://www.sacurrent.com/Blogs/archives/2015/03/16/transgender-teens-struggle-in-foster-care

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Transgender Teens Struggle In Foster Care (Original Post) TexasTowelie Mar 2015 OP
foster care parents need more education in order to deal with this child. And they need to find a jwirr Mar 2015 #1

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
1. foster care parents need more education in order to deal with this child. And they need to find a
Tue Mar 17, 2015, 12:14 AM
Mar 2015

counselor that has more brains than the ones she was sent to.

As a Social Worker for developmentally disabled children we had a list of professionals who knew what they were doing and who were good at it. That is who we referred our parents and children to. That is needed in any case that deals with differences that are not always understood.

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