Published June, 2007
Sexual Health Advocacy for Youth in Foster Care and Detention Facilities, Legal and Policy Outline, The Center for HIV Law and Policy (2007)
The Center for HIV Law and Policys (CHLP) legal and policy outline for advocating for sexual health and HIV prevention programming for youth in state custody. Youth in the state welfare and juvenile justice systems, especially lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning youth, are at alarmingly high risk of becoming HIV-infected. There is a critical need to address discriminatory treatment and the lack of policies, staff training and services that endanger and stigmatize these youth. Targeting advocacy in this direction has a potentially significant impact for the health of at-risk youth and the communities to which they return. The outline highlights various strategies for addressing the states failures; for example, policy and regulations reforms and using existing state laws governing adolescents autonomy and sexual orientation discrimination, as well as state and federal privacy, equal protection, substantive due process and first amendment guarantees to gain legal inroads to securing statesponsored sexual health care services for detained youth.
Copyright Information: CHLP encourages the broad use and sharing of resources. Please credit CHLP when using these materials or their content. and do not alter, adapt or present as your work without prior permission from CHLP.
Legal Disclaimer: CHLP makes an effort to ensure legal information is correct and current, but the law is regularly changing, and the accuracy of the information provided cannot be guaranteed. The legal information in a given resource may not be applicable to all situations and is not—and should not be relied upon—as a substitute for legal advice.