Queer and Loathing: Does the Foster Care System Bully Gay Kids?
One teenager's heart-wrenching—and telling—story.
— By Jason Cherkis
November/December 2010 Issue
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/gay-kids-foster-homes-bullyingNothing frightened Kenneth Jones more than the prospect of his first real date. He prepped for it like a court appearance, saving up for a black button-down shirt and for a salon treatment to tame his spiky locks and paint his nails with intricate black-and-gray swirls. He still remembers those last anxious teenage moments. "A lot of mirror time," he recalls. "Tons of mirror time."
He needed this to go well. As a gay foster child in Washington, DC, Kenneth spent most of his weekends alone. By the summer of 2009, the isolation had gotten so bad that he'd started calling his cell-phone carrier's help line with imaginary complaints, just so he could vent to somebody about something. He would even text himself encouraging messages, like "Good job," or "Damn you so strong."
