The Plight of Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth

Ryan Berg, author of No House to Call My Home: Love, Family, & Other Transgressions, will talk about his work in New York City as a counselor with LGBTQ teenagers in foster care, especially those who are about to age out of the child welfare system. Berg begins this account of LGBTQ teens in the NYC foster care system with statistics that are at once shocking and painfully familiar: Children placed in foster care are more likely than veterans of war to develop post-traumatic stress disorder. LGBTQ teens make up 40% of homeless youth and are especially vulnerable. 70% of LGBTQ youth in group homes reported violence based on LGBTQ status. Berg is a West Des Moines native and Valley High School graduate now living in Minneapolis.

A panel discussion with Ryan Berg will follow. Participants include Donna Red Wing of One Iowa, Penny McGee of Iowa Kids Net, and Julia Webb of Youth & Shelter Services. The panel will speak to the needs and problems in Iowa with special emphasis on the search for LGBTQ-affirming family foster and adoptive homes.