Biden’s HHS gives $1.7M to promote LGBT youth acceptance in families.

Biden Administration Offers Grants to Promote Family Acceptance of LGBT Youths

The Biden administration’s Health and Human Services (HHS) department is offering up to $1.7 million in grants to groups that promote family “acceptance” of LGBT youths.

The HHS is offering grants of up to $425,000 per year to organizations that work towards reducing rejection of LGBT youth by their families and connecting them to counseling services to increase acceptance. The program is being run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Purpose of the Program

The program aims to prevent health and behavioral health risks such as suicide, depression, homelessness, drug use, and HIV among LGBTQI+ youth. It seeks to promote their well-being in the context of their families, caregivers, cultures, and communities through family counseling and support programs and interventions.

The grant application materials state that LGBTQI+ youth are at greater risk for poor behavioral health outcomes than their cisgender, heterosexual counterparts. A survey by The Trevor Project, a transgender activist group focused on youth, found that LGBT youth with “high social support” from their families reported fewer suicide attempts than those with “low or moderate social support.”

Grant recipients must connect youth and their families with counseling and support. They must also refer youth with mental health or substance abuse disorders to the proper community providers. Groups must also develop an “evidence-based family counseling intervention” to “promote family acceptance” of LGBT youth and “prevent behaviors associated with family rejection of the LGBTQI+ youth that can lead to mental health and substance use conditions.”

Advisory Workgroup and Social Media Promotion

Groups that receive a grant must establish an LGBT “advisory workgroup” that can include LGBT activists, youth, parents, and counselors. They are also allowed to use social media to promote the message that family rejection of a child’s LGBT identity could lead to suicide and other behavioral problems. They may also consult with child welfare devices on programs that encourage families to accept their child’s identity.

The Biden administration has come out strongly in favor of allowing children to access transgender medical interventions like puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex change surgeries. Last year, President Biden called on HHS to increase access to transgender medical treatments and fight red states that are attempting to restrict children’s access to them.

Meanwhile, an estimated 300,000 minors aged 13 to 17 identified as transgender as of last year.

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