An estimated one-third of foster youth identify as LGBTQ+. Federal agencies are ripping away their protections

When Rin entered foster care as a teen in 2021, he quickly felt overlooked and lost inside the system. It was an emotional upheaval, exacerbated by the complexities of his gender identity and fear of expressing his authentic self.

“I promptly locked myself in the closet,” said Rin, who identifies as transmasculine and uses he/him pronouns. CNN is not identifying him by his full name due to privacy concerns.

After opening up about his gender identity and sexuality to another youth at a group home in rural Oregon, Rin quickly regretted it, feeling ostracized from the other youth by his caregivers and misunderstood. In search of an escape, he found a nonprofit supportive of his identity and that helped him transition out of foster care.

Under the Trump administration, state child welfare agencies and nonprofits like the one that helped Rin are walking a tightrope, trying to find a delicate balance between fulfilling their mission of supporting some of the country’s most vulnerable children and working within the guidelines of a conservative administration that has the power to cut off vital funding.

President Donald Trump has pursued an aggressive agenda targeting LGBTQ+ polices, resetting federal definitions of sex to only male and female, banning transgender people from serving in the US military, restricting federal funds in gender-affirming medical care, preventing transgender women from competing in female sports and taking steps to roll back federal protections for LGBTQ+ youth in schools and foster care.

In July, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. formally rescinded a Biden-era rule that aimed to ensure LGBTQ+ youth in the child welfare system were placed in homes supportive of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.

But placing LGBTQ+ youth into non-affirming households can lead to long-term consequences, Elliott Hinkle, founder of the youth aid group Unicorn Solutions, told CNN. The organization provides training and consultation to community leaders and policymakers on solutions that benefit LGBTQ+ youth, including those in foster care.

Multiple studies estimate that around one-third of all foster youth identify as LGBTQ+, compared with 9.5% of the general youth population. They are shown to have higher rates of suicide attempts and are nearly four times more likely to be kicked out, be abandoned or run away due to negative treatment based on their identity.

It’s “not because something is wrong with these young people,” Hinkle said. “But they’re living in a world that says ‘we don’t want you here.’ And I would say a logical response to that, though a sad one, is to say, ‘I don’t want to be here anymore because nobody makes it feel like I should be.’”

Having themselves been an LGBTQ+ foster youth, Hinkle, who uses they/them pronouns, stressed that becoming a foster parent is a privilege – not a right – and accepting kids for who they are is a necessary and moral component of child welfare.

“Children in foster care don’t choose to be in foster care, so they’re already at a power imbalance,” Hinkle said. “If a child were to come into my home and they’re a completely different culture, race, background from me, who am I to say that they need to completely assimilate into my life, or they can’t be there?”

Progress at risk

At least 35 states and Washington, DC, have implemented policies in recent years that offer varying levels of legal and anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ foster youth.

The protections for foster youth have come a long way in recent decades, several experts told CNN, at both state and city levels.

For instance, in 2012, New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services founded what is now called the LGBTQIA+ Office, which helps implement LGBTQ+ policies and support LGBTQ+ youth.

Today, that includes mandatory training for social workers and foster parents, and a push to recruit more LGBTQ+-identifying foster parents – a practice seen not just in New York but elsewhere like California and Illinois, according to official agencies and experts CNN spoke to.

“Establishing trust really quickly” with foster youth is critical “because so much trust has been broken for these young people,” said a former adviser for one of the country’s largest municipal child welfare agencies, who asked not to be named due to concerns of repercussion for speaking out about recent policy changes.

Since Trump took office and began targeting LGBTQ+ policies, state-level political appointees have also rolled back many initiatives for LGBTQ+ foster youth, which experts say is prompting child welfare groups to fear speaking up for fear of retribution.

“Things really have gone backwards from where they were,” said Gary Mallon, a professor at Hunter College in New York City who researches LGBTQ+ child welfare.

Mallon, who previously traveled across the country training prospective foster parents, said the shift is a stark contrast to before the Trump administration’s second term, when even some conservative states were slowly embracing initiatives to help LGBTQ+ foster youth.

“There was hardly any pushback from the staff or the community about [trainings] in a state that is very conservative,” Mallon told CNN, recounting experiences in the South when some prospective families with strong religious beliefs thanked him for raising the issue.

Fighting the rollbacks

Several Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups are pushing back against the dismantling of LGBTQ+ child welfare initiatives.

In response to the US Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to roll back Biden-era protections for LGBTQ+ foster youth, Reps. Mark Takano of California and Angie Craig of Minnesota, respectively chair and co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, issued statements critical of the policy change.

“Every child in foster care – including LGBTQI+ children – deserves a safe home, which is exactly what the Biden Administration sought to accomplish with this rule,” Takano said. “Rescinding this rule without putting forward an alternative to protect LGBTQI+ foster children puts children at risk, plain and simple.”

“The ‘party of family values’ strikes again and their relentless attacks on LGBTQ+ youth continue,” Craig said, calling it “yet another disgraceful attack on LGBTQ+ foster youth and on families across this country.”

In September 2025, months into Trump’s second term, the Administration for Children and Families, a division within HHS, sent a letter to 13 states that have policies stating prospective foster families should support a child’s sexual and gender identity, arguing these regulations violated some families’ religious beliefs and were potentially unconstitutional.

“As you know, I have the responsibility of monitoring how federal funds are used and ensuring that federal law is upheld,” Andrew Gradison, then the agency’s acting assistant secretary, warned in the letters.

Two states, Massachusetts and Vermont, changed their policies after receiving the letters, ACF said in a statement. The agency didn’t identify the other states that received the letter.

Massachusetts, which was facing a lawsuit over the issue, said in February its regulations were being updated to remove references to supporting a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity, instead requiring foster parents to “affirm a child’s individual identity and needs.”

In response to CNN’s inquiry, Massachusetts Department of Children and Families Commissioner Staverne Miller said the agency’s “top priority is providing a safe and supportive home for all children in foster care,” and it is “committed to ensuring that no one is prevented from applying or reapplying to be a foster parent because of their religious beliefs.”

Vermont officials told CNN its policies for licensed caregivers changed as part of a settlement of two federal lawsuits, and the process was already in progress when it received Gradison’s letter.

While agreeing to affirm a child’s LGBTQ+ identity is no longer a requirement to become a licensed caregiver, the state still “thoughtfully matches children and youth with caregivers … with the goal of providing homes where youth are physically safe, emotionally supported, and treated with respect,” said Aryka Radke, a deputy commissioner with the Vermont Department for Children and Families.

Two months after the letter sent by Gradison to states, Trump also issued an executive order, spearheaded by first lady Melania Trump, aimed at reforming support for youth in foster care and which emphasized prospective foster parents should not be disqualified for religious beliefs that prevent them from affirming an LGBTQ+ youth’s identity.

“Some jurisdictions and organizations maintain policies that discourage or prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths,” the order stated.

It urged to “take appropriate action” to address state policies that “inappropriately prohibit participation in federally-funded child-welfare programs by qualified individuals or organizations based upon their sincerely-held religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

And the ACF sent a letter to all 50 states in March advising them against removing children from homes where parents “decline to support a child’s self-identification as the opposite sex.”

“The Administration’s goal is to keep families together whenever safely possible, and to expand the number of loving foster homes when foster care is necessary,” ACF said in a statement to CNN. “Additionally, states should not turn away families who can provide safe homes simply because of sincerely held religious or moral convictions.”

In many states, it is nonprofit and advocacy groups that often facilitate services and navigate foster care placements. But federal actions, like requiring groups that receive federal grants to adhere to Trump’s anti-DEI policies, are making the process more difficult, according to Sean Suib, executive director at New Avenues for Youth, an Oregon-based nonprofit that supports homeless children.

“We have to attest that we’re practicing in alignment with some practices that, frankly, are not data or science vetted and are against the values of this community,” Suib said. “In a time where philanthropy is looking challenged and where the economics of the state are challenged, the threat of not having a federal partner is real.”

Combined with cuts to other programs meant to help vulnerable populations – such as food stamps and Medicaid – Suib said these decisions will only make it more difficult for nonprofits like his to adequately help the communities they serve.

“We’re under so much duress because of both the political and the funding environment,” he said. “It’s like a water balloon. You squeeze in one place, and it’s going to bulge out in another.”