Honouring the voices of 2SLGBTQ+ youth in care within Manitoba

Abstract

Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual (2SLGBTQ+) youth in care not only have to encounter the challenges that come with being a youth in care, but experience oppression due to colonialism, heterosexism, and cissexism. This Master of Social Work in Indigenous Knowledges thesis centres the voices of five individuals who are a part of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and have had experiences of being in the care of the child welfare system in Manitoba. In the research process there were individual interviews with the five participants, and three of the participants took part in analyzing the summaries of the individual interviews in a group analysis, done by way of talking circle. Overarching themes included oppression at micro, mezzo, and macro levels, and that for some of the Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQ+ participants, cultural identity and gender and/or sexuality, were tied. The major themes that came to light in this process were that being in care had impacts on their sexual and gender identities, impacts on their cultural identities, and that 2SLGBTQ+ youth in care who had the experience of being adopted, and those who did not, had similar experiences. Arriving to the changes that 2SLGBTQ+ youth in care would like to see to better serve 2SLGBTQ+ youth in the care of the child welfare system, there came the major theme of the need for affirmation at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels.