“That isn’t happening”
Good chance they’ll be kicked out of their home or worse. There’s an epidemic of lgbt youth homelessness nationwide, and it’s even worse in Utah for obvious reasons. Schools should not be carte blanche informing parents without permission from the student, it’s a safety issue. Reading their full guidance for teachers in another comment above it’s making some very reasonable suggestions to help ensure student safety.
https://www.upr.org/utah-news/2012-06-11/utah-one-of-the-worst-places-to-be-lgbt-and-homeless
Get out of here with that. Utah is solidly in the middle of the pack for child homelessness. California is biggest per capita, four times the rate of Utah. Spreading misinformation doesn’t help anyone. https://homelesslaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2021StateIndexReport.pdf
https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-have-the-highest-and-lowest-rates-of-homelessness/
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2024/02/22/states-with-the-biggest-child-homelessness-problem/
I am not spreading misinformation and did not imply that Utah had the worst youth homeless rate in general among all states, we’re talking specifically about lgbt youth homelessness, and the greatly increased dangers of being kicked out of your home and many other types of abuse that LGBT youth face. This is a major problem across the entire country, including Utah. So I think in any state there should be a lot of thought put into whether schools should just start disclosing information like gender or sexual identities to students families, without assessing if that might be putting the student into danger.
Unfortunately Utah refuses to formally gather information on things like gender identity and sexual orientation in its youth homeless population, data that is gathered in many other states, so Utah has deliberately made a direct comparison between states not possible on this issue. You would also need to factor in that many homeless individuals relocate to areas with increased services to help. You would also need to consider if youth feel safe even disclosing this information to a state agency run by a very conservative lgbt hostile state government. If Utah wants to prove it’s better on this issue and that the anecdotal evidence and evidence gathered directly at homeless shelters is wrong, than they can start gathering the data themselves, they’ve had plenty of chances to do so. I’m gonna assume the worst when they refuse to look. Go to any of the lgbt youth homeless centers in Salt Lake City before belittling this problem, and spreading awareness about it is not misinformation.
http://www.nomorestrangers.org/homeless-youth-in-utah/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lgbt-morman-youth_b_1597617
https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/2/03/suicides-or-not-lds-harming-lgbt-youth#toggle-gdpr
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-plight-of-homeless-yo_b_10205650
I know several LGBT youth because my oldest has been in that world for years. The religious families I know are not the ones who put their child at most risk, oddly. They aren’t always happy about it, but none of them have threatened or hurt their children. Of the ones I know, three are in real danger. Two of those families aren’t religious and one is not active in their faith.
I just think we should be careful about slinging around accusations that aren’t grounded in facts. It leads more children to suicidal behavior because they assume from what people say that their parents’ faith means they won’t be accepted.
Going to the homeless shelters preselects for kids that have issues with their families. That doesn’t say anything about the rates or the likelihood of any given family being a danger.
