July 31,2025

Wyden Investigation Reveals Harms and Discrimination Faced by LGBTQIA+ Youth in Residential Treatment Facilities

LGBTQIA+ youth report living in fear and extreme isolation while in residential treatment facilities due to hostile environments, punitive treatment, and abuse experienced on the basis of their identities

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today released “Myself as I Am: Experiences of LGBTQIA+ Youth in Residential Treatment Facilities,” which exposes the additional layers of vulnerability experienced by LGBTQIA+ youth in residential treatment facilities (RTF).

The new report builds on the findings of Wyden’s “Warehouses of Neglect: How Taxpayers Are Funding Systemic Abuse in Youth Residential Treatment Facilities,” which outlines that the risk of harm to all young people placed in RTFs is endemic to the operating model. Testimony from over 130 LGBTQIA+ youth regarding their experiences in RTFs – as well as the accounts of their treatment from medical professionals, legal representatives, Protection & Advocacy agencies, and child welfare advocates – reveal that LGBTQIA+ young people are especially at risk for abuse and discrimination on the basis of their identities.

“Over 100 personal stories make clear that LGBTQIA+ kids are suffering from extreme isolation in residential treatment facilities and being abused and discriminated against,” Wyden said. “The whole point of an RTF is to help kids get better, but ‘Warehouses of Neglect’ showed that abuse and neglect are too often the norm. Today’s addendum shows that these facilities can be even worse for LGBTQIA+ kids.”

Key findings of “Myself as I Am: Experiences of LGBTQIA+ Youth in Residential Treatment Facilities” include:

  • Many LGBTQIA+ young people at RTFs choose to conceal their identities out of fear for their own safety;

  • Young people described RTFs as hostile environments for LGBTQIA+ people;

  • Many LBGTQIA+ young people at RTFs described experiencing punitive treatment on the basis of their identities;

  • Anecdotes shared by legal service providers detail how RTF providers abused children on the basis of their LGBTQIA+ identity;

  • Numerous young people described experiencing punitive treatment tied to their transgender identities while in RTFs;

  • In numerous instances, RTFs were not accommodating of LGBTQIA+ young people’s preferred names or pronouns and staff withheld gender-affirming items from young people; and

  • LGBTQIA+ youth expressed feeling safer when RTF staff engaged in affirming and safe practices related to their identities.

The Finance Committee held a hearing in June 2024 on “Warehouses of Neglect.”

The text of the report is here.

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