Webinar Title: Stopping It Where It Starts: Disrupting the LGBTQ Polyvictimization Pathway in Childhood

Slide 1: Stopping It Where It Starts: Disrupting the LGBTQ Polyvictimization Pathway in Childhood
* Loree Cook-Daniels and michael munson
* June 24, 2019

Slide 2: Thank you OVC !
* This training was produced by FORGE under 2016-XV-GX-K015, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.  The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this training are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Slide 3: Welcome & Housekeeping
* Take care of yourself
* Participation is TOTALLY optional
* PPTs
* IMAGE of a pink haired person, with leather gauntlets, hugging themself

Slide 4: FORGE webinar leads
* Loree Cook-Daniels
* Policy & Program Director
* IMAGE of Loree Cook-Daniels in red top and glasses, smiling.
* michael munson
* Executive Director
* IMAGE of michael munson, with red silk scarf, black shirt, glasses

Slide 5: FORGEÕs Role in Resource Center
* One of eight population groups
* FORGE leads the LGBTQ working group
* National transgender anti-violence group
* Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
* Facebook is FORGE.trans
* Twitter is @FORGEforward,
* Instagram is @FORGE_forward

Slide 6: Agenda
* Lifelong violence & health disparities
* ACES
* School-based bullying
* Family-based bullying
* What you can do!
* IMAGE of four youth, being silly, with fingers in the shape of V's.

Slide 7: The Problem is Lifelong
* LGBTQ adults experience higher rates:
* Sexual assault
* Intimate partner violence
* Hate crimes
* Mental health problems (esp. depression, anxiety, and suicidality)
* Substance use issues

Slide 8: And It Starts in Childhood
* LGBTQ youth more likely to experienceÉ
* 3.8 times: childhood sexual abuse
* 1.2 times: parental physical abuse
* LGBTQ youth experience higher ratesÉ
* Emotional abuse (47.9% vs. 29.6%)
* Exposure to domestic violence (24.1% vs. 15.4%)

Slide 9: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
* ACES: Abuse
* ICONS for physical (a fist), emotional (a tear), and sexual abuse (a child)
* ACEs: Neglect
* ICONS of physical (teddy bear) and emotional neglect (child sitting with hands around knees)
* ACEs: Household dysfunction
* ICONS for mental illness (brain), Incarcerated relative (hands on bars), mother treated violently (adult holding infant), substance use (two pills), and divorce (two wedding rings)

Slide 10: ACES: relationship to health
* Infographic style figures of 5 people of increasing height.  Under the figures are 0 ACEs, 1 ACE, 2 ACEs, 3 ACEs, and 4+ ACEs
* Centers for Disease Control, Kaiser Ð ACE : Centers for Disease Control, Kaiser Ð ACE 

Slide 11: Possible Risk Outcomes
* ICONS:
* Behavior:
o Lack of physical activity: person on a couch
o Smoking: cigarette
o Alcoholism: bottle of liquor
o Drug use: pills
o Missed work: empty chair
o Physical and mental health
o Severe obesity: round belly person
o Diabetes: finger with blood drop
o Depression: eye with a tear
o Suicide attempts: hand full of pills
o STDÕs: cell symbols
o Heart disease: cartoon heart with scary face inside
o Cancer: Awareness ribbon
o Stroke: two hemispheres of brain
o COPD: lungs
o Broken bones: broken bone

Slide 12: One example: ACE score & risk
* GRAPH Of Childhood experiences vs. Adult alcholism
* Chart with Y Axis showing % Alcoholic; X Axis = ACE score.  Along the X axis is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4+ ACES.  These align with 3% alcoholic (0 ACE), 5% alcholic (1 ACE), 10% alcoholic (2 ACES), 11% alcoholic (3 ACES), and 16% alcoholic (4+ ACES)
* Centers for Disease Control, Kaiser Ð ACE : Centers for Disease Control, Kaiser Ð ACE 

Slide 13: How Does That Work?
* IMAGE of ACE Pyramid
* A Maslow's hierarchy-like pyramid;  From the bottom to the top (the widest to the smallest): 
* Adverse childhood experiences; social, emotional, cognitive impairment; adoption of health-risk behaviors; disease, disability, and social problems; and early death.
* Centers for Disease Control, Kaiser Ð ACE : Centers for Disease Control, Kaiser Ð ACE 

Slide 14: ÒEveryoneÓ Experiences ACEs
* ÒÉbetween 55 and 62 percent of the population have experienced at least one category of ACE, and between 13 and 17 percent of the population have an ACE score of four or more.Ó
* LINK to Harris, Nadine Burke. (2018).  The deepest well: Healing the long-term effects of childhood adversity, New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company; The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity

Slide 15: LGBTQ-Specific ACEs
* There may be common LGBTQ-specific ACEs that arenÕt being measured but help increase disparities
* Today weÕre going to focus on two:
* School-based bullying
* Family-based bullying

Slide 16: School-based Bullying
* IMAGE of three youth hamming it up for the camera.  Two look as if they are voguing. One is seriously looking into the camera.

Slide 17: Types and Disparities
* 20% to 33% all US students bullied
* LGBTQ students: 65% to 85%
* Physically assaulted or harassed
* Sexually harassed or assaulted
* Cyberbullied
* Relational aggression
* Threatened/injured by weapons
* 57% to 71% heard slurs from teachers

Slide 18: Aftereffects of Bullying
* 44% to 60% felt unsafe at school
* Negatively affectedÉ 
* Self-esteem
* Relationships with friends or family
* Schoolwork (GPAs)
* School attendance and aspirations
* Increased depression and suicidality

Slide 19: Bullying and Discipline Issues
* 20% who reported bullying were blamed
* LGBTQ students are in more physical fights
* Up to 3X more likely to experience harsh disciplinary treatment at school

Slide 20: Family-Based Bullying
* IMAGE of A family of 3 people: two parents and their pre-teen transgender child.  All are wearing black t-shirts with the word "Visibility" on the front.  

Slide 21: Even Well-Meaning ParentsÉ
* Remember: Childhood abuse rates higher
* >50% try to change childÕs sexual orientation
* Most parents ÒambivalentÓ about LGBTQ children (at least at first)
* May not want to condone or encourage LGBTQ identity
* Want to help their children have a Ògood lifeÓ and be accepted

Slide 22: Common Parental Responses
* Denying or minimizing an adolescentÕs LGBT identity: ÒItÕs just a phaseÓ or ÒHeÕll grow out of itÓ or ÒHow could she possibly know?Ó or ÒHeÕs just confusedÓ
* Not talking about/discouraging the adolescent from talking about their LGBT identity
* Not allowing child to attend family events

Slide 23: Children/Youth Feel It Differently
* Youth perceive these as rejecting behaviors.

Slide 24: ÒRejectionÓ Leads toÉ
* Link to the Family Acceptance Project: Family Acceptance Project
* IMAGE of A text-based graphic from the Family Acceptance Project. it reads:
o Well-being & parental rejection.
o LGBTQ youth with high parental rejection (as compared to LGBTQ youth with moderate to low parental rejection) are:
* 8x more likely to attempt suicide;
* 6x more likely to report high levels of depression;
* 3x more likely to use illegal drugs;
* 3x more likely to be at high risk for HIV and STDs

Slide 25: One story
* Homosexuality took over the whole framework of my relationship with my parents. There was no more parenting. No more looking at a report card or calling a teacher or figuring out a bank account or teaching me how to become a functioning adult. All of that stopped and it became about conversion and religion and gayness and damnation versus salvation.

Slide 26: Conversion Therapy
* Used to include institutionalization, castration, and electroconvulsive shock therapy
* Now includes:
o Training to conform to gender norms
o Teaching heterosexual dating norms
o Using hypnosis to redirect desires
o Sometimes, family rejection

Slide 27: Conversion Therapy Effects  (1 of 2)
* Decreased self-esteem and authenticity to others
* Increased self-hatred and negative perceptions of homosexuality
* Confusion, depression, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, shame, social withdrawal and suicidality
* Anger at and a sense of betrayal by conversion therapy providers
* An increase in substance abuse and high-risk sexual behaviors

Slide 28: Conversion Therapy Effects  (2 of 2)
* A feeling of being dehumanized and untrue to self
* A loss of faith
* A sense of having wasted time and resources
* Self-blame, including feelings of weakness and lack of effort, commitment, faith or worthiness in GodÕs eyes
* Intrusive images and sexual dysfunction

Slide 29: Conversion Therapy Bans
* ÒEvery major medical, psychiatric, psychological, and professional mental health organizationÓ opposes conversion therapy
* 18Êstates,Ê1Êterritory, D.C., and multiple cities have outlawed conversion therapy on minors
* Some have exempted religious therapy

Slide 30: Summing Up
* IMAGE of Adult with large earring, kissing pre-teen child on the forehead.  Child has trans pride flags painted on their face (blue, pink, white stripes) and is wearing a pride flag around their shoulders.  Back drop is a trans pride flag.

Slide 31: Leaving Home: Top 3 Reasons for LGBT Homelessness
1. Parental Rejection
2. Abuse within the family
3. Aggression/violence in the family
o GRAPH with text of the top three reasons for LGBT Homelessness: reported by LGBT Young people (ATK 2014).
o Parental rejection = 69%
o Abuse within the family (physical, emotional, sexual) = 69%
o Aggression/violence in the family = 62%

Slide 32: Pathways to increased violence
* Mental health issues
* Lack of high school diploma
* LGBTQ 15% of juvenile justice population
* Homelessness
* 20% trans people have engaged in underground economy (sex work, etc.)
* Results: >exposure to police/CJ, sexual assault, IPV, public harassment, attacked with a gun

Slide 33: What Individuals Can Do
* IMAGE of 7 young people all smiling and close together in front of a trans pride flag.  

Slide 34: Make Your Support Visible
* IMAGE of a note from a 15 year old trans boy reading: "Neighbor -- Thank you for having a trans flag waving in your yard.  I am a 15 year old trans boy living in an unsupportive household, but every time I see your flag, I feel better.  I appreciate your existence and pride."

Slide 35: Prevention Strategies (1 of 2)
* Talk about LGBT identity
* Express affection 
* Support LGBT identity
* Advocate when mistreated
* Require others to respect child
* Connect youth with LGBT adult role models
* Help faith community become inclusive
* Welcome LGBT friends to home
* Believe in happy future

Slide 36: Prevention Strategies (2 of 2)
* Support parents, connect them to Family Acceptance Project information
* Advocate for explicit, enforceable school inclusion/non-bullying policies
* Promote accurate information about LGBTQ people, especially youth
* Connect youth with LGBTQ resources
* IMAGE of a proud parent and confident child in front of FORGE backdrop.  They are standing back to back and smiling.

Slide 37: Questions
* IMAGE of Many colorful post-it notes with question marks.

Slide 38: Thank you!
* Loree Cook-Daniels
* LoreeCD@forge-forward.org
* michael munson
* mmunson@forge-forward.org




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