Take Action to Protect Youth from Institutional Abuse

Protect Youth from institutional Abuse

Programs that claim to help parents with “troubled teens” have become a multi-million dollar industry in the United States.  The unregulated business of boot camps, wilderness programs, and training academies make promises to parents desperate to help their children, but what parents don’t understand is how dangerous these institutions can be.

“My mom didn’t like it when I came out as a lesbian, so she hired two men to kidnap me in the middle of the night.  They told me I was going to jail.  Unfortunately, I was sent somewhere worse – where I had fewer rights and was isolated from the outside world.”  – Rebecca Lopez, Survivor

Many of the alleged “treatments” for young people at these facilities are actually torture.  They include food and water deprivation, beatings, hard labor, electric shock therapy, denial of medical care, and extended solitary confinement.  It’s hard to believe this is allowed to take place in the United States, but Survivors of Institutional abuse have documented more than 300 deaths of youth at these facilities.

“Aaron’s mother and I will never escape our decision to send our gifted 16-year-old son to his death at NorthStar.  The guilt of our apparent naivete was crippling.  We were conned by their fraudulent claims and will go to our graves regretting our gullibility.” – Bob Bacon, Father

The LA LGBT Center and Survivors of Institutional Abuse have launched a new campaign to once and for all implement a system to regulate these residential treatment programs. What these facilities do to young people would be are against the law.  If parents did these things, they would be investigated by the Department of Child and Family Services.  Unfortunately, these “boot camps” currently exist outside the law.

“When I was 17, two large men woke me up before dawn, tied a belt around my waist and forced me out of my home.  I was taken to a dumping ground – guarded by men with guns – for kids whose families didn’t know how to solve their child’s issue.  In my case, it was the fact that I’m gay.  The program was an endless nightmare of torture, including public beatings and humiliation, hard labor, and sometimes solitary confinement in a windowless cell where we relieved ourselves in a bucket.” – David Wernsman, Survivor

Representative Adam Schiff and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have introduced HR3060 to regulate these programs in all 50 states.  It will take all of us, however, to move this work forward.  All of us can play an important role in raising awareness of this issue and taking action to support our LGBT Youth, and in fact, all youth that are at risk of being sent to these facilities.

Take Action

Take the first steps now, and join the LA Center and Survivors of Institutional Abuse:

Click here to sign the petition to Congress to Protect Youth from Institutional Abuse.

 

Protect Youth from Institutional Abuse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Campaign Puts AAPI LGBT Community in the Spotlight

DC AAPI Visibility Project

A new visibility campaign in the District of Columbia aims to highlight our local Asian American and Pacific Islander community. The DC AAPI Visibility Project is a partnership between the D.C. Maryors office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, (MOAPIA), API Queers United for Action (AQUA DC) and KhushDC. It is a celebration of the intersectionality of AAPI ethnicities and sexual orientation or gender identity.

The District residents featured in the campaign, many of whom are activists in the community, put a name and face on the diversity within our movement.

As the Project states: “We want to let people in the greater D.C. area know that we exist, and that we are not ashamed of who we are. For those who are still struggling to reconcile their identity as both LGBTQ and AAPI, we hope this project will be a resource and support for them. This collection of portraits will also showcase to our neighbors in both the LGBTQ and AAPI community at large that we are an integral part of the community.”

Check out the campaign photos below and visit their website at: www.thedcaapiproject.com.

DC AAPIR Visibility Campaign: Campbell

Campbell: I am a transgender queer-identified Korean-American and D.C. is my home.

The DC AAPI Visibility Campaign
Cynthia: I am a queer 2.5 generation Chinese American. I am an analyst in financial services, am passionate about building radical Asian and Pacific Islander Community …. and D.C. is my home.
The DC AAPI Visibility Campaign
David: I learned Vietnamese as my first language and was an English language learner (ELL) when attending public school … and D.C. is my home.
The DC AAPI Visibility Project
James: I am a gay male, chamorro and my family hails from The U.S. Territory of Guam … and D.C. is my home.
DC AAPI LGBT Visibility Project
Nicholas: I am an educator, administrator, and cusultant, agender, queer, and a person of color from a binational Japanese and U.S. background … and D.C. is my home.
DC AAPI LGBT Visibility Project
Rupen: I am a gay male from Mumbai, India. I am our and proud … and D.C. is my home.
DC AAPI Visibility Project
Sassanka: I am a page poet, justice advocate, and hard femme .. and D.C. is my home.
Vincent: I am a 1.5 generation Taiwanese American from California. I am also the co-chair of Aqua DC, have a very DC-y day job in the think tank world ... and D.C. is my home.
Vincent: I am a 1.5 generation Taiwanese American from California. I am also the co-chair of Aqua DC, have a very DC-y day job in the think tank world … and D.C. is my home.