A resolution was announced yesterday by Lambda Legal in a discrimination complaint filed with the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations against the city of Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Youth Study Center (YSC). The complaint had been filed on behalf of a minor transwoman, L. P. (now 18), who was verbally and mentally abused and physically attacked daily for almost a year and a half while she lived in the youth facility.
Youth Study Center's new policies and trainings adopted as a result of this settlement will help to ensure that other transgender youth under the facility's care are safe and don't face discrimination because of who they are.
--Flor Bermudez, Youth in Out-of-Home Care staff attorney for Lambda Legal
In 2008 a Family Court Judge ordered DHS to provide L. P. with all appropriate medical treatment for Gender Identity Disorder (i.e. hormone therapy) and commanded that her female gender identity be respected. YSC did worse than failing at that order. They refused to refer to L. P. by her female name or to use female pronouns, refused her access to clothing and grooming options appropriate to her gender, and reprimanded her when she was perceived to be acting feminine. When she asked to be referred to by her preferred name, she was told:
You ain’t no fucking female, you are a dude. . . Till you get your dick cut off, I’m not going to call you [by your female name.]
Additionally, YSC staff ridiculed her and treated her in a cruel and degrading manner and allowed residents to abuse her on a daily basis:
You're a faggot!
Wanna-be-girl!
You are not a girl!
You will never be a girl!
On several occasions, the verbal harassment escalated to physical attacks.
In other words, you'd have thought she was living with her parents or interacting with the public at large.
The complaint filed, in October 2009, by Lambda Legal to the PCHR argued that the YSC, operated by DHS, violated the Philadelphia Fair Practices Ordinance because L.P. was harassed and discriminated against on the basis of her actual and/or perceived gender identity, sexual orientation, sex, and disability.
The settlement includes revisions of YSC policies addressing non-discriminatory treatment of LGBT youth to include specific protection of transgender youth. Now such youth will be allowed to live in a single room on the unit corresponding to their gender identity and receive hormone therapy, will be called by their preferred names and the pronouns reflective of that gender identity, even if their names have not yet been legally changed, and will be provided gender-appropriate clothing and grooming options.
DHS will also provide training for all YSC agents, providers, and staff on LGBT issues and respectful treatment. L. P. is also receiving an undisclosed sum from the city of Philadelphia to help assuage the torture she was subjected to.
Who knows? It might be enough to pay for her surgery, should she desire it.
I am happy that the case is settled. I hope that these changes will ensure that no other young transgender person experiences the physical and emotional abuse that I experienced at the Youth Study Center.
--L. P.