LGB Alliance starts Helpline for teens and young adults

[IwantToRetire]

This isn't a specifically for women, lesbians but aimed at young people who are feeling confused or bullied whilst trying to work out who they are. Thought some on FWR might have siblings, children, who might find this useful.

Q: Why did you select the age range 13 – 24?

Adolescence is often a time of turmoil and change and teenagers can struggle as they begin to think about who they are.

Whilst acting on any sense of same-sex attraction may be years away, the worries and fears associated with the idea that you are ‘different’ often start early.

Young adults, on the other hand, may be more settled in their sexual orientation but struggling with a new world of relationships.

Whilst the support would be framed differently and always in an age appropriate manner, the underlying message from our volunteers will be meaningful to all teens and young adults – it’s always fine to be you.

Q: How is it different to any other service?

Like other helplines, we’ll be there to support teens and young adults facing a whole host of issues – ranging from coming out and bullying to break-ups and family alienation.

What makes us unique is that the service won’t suggest to a teenage girl who feels different, because she prefers short hair and playing sport, that she might really be a boy. And it won’t tell a teenage boy who is being bullied for being effeminate that maybe he’s really a girl.

Many young adults report being shamed for their lesbian, gay or bisexual relationships by those who would say that same-sex attraction is in some way bigoted. We start from the premise that homosexuality is perfectly natural.

There is much more info about safeguarding and how volunteers were recruited on this web page https://lgballiance.org.uk/our-helpline-is-open/

Yes but there's a massive difference between being a young adult and a 13 year old! I find it very concerning how comfortable you are with a lack of clear boundaries between children and adults.

What do you mean LGB doesn't think LGB kids exist? Most LGB people know they're gay/bi in their teens.

Teenage Cancer Trust has the same staff working with 13-24 year olds. And the 13-24 year olds are in the same ward, sharing a social area and day room, physically in the same place at the same time. I'm not aware of anyone believing their staff aren't able to deal appropriately with young people across that age range, and due to the effects of cancer treatment they will sometimes be talking about sex and fertility.

But somehow LGBA having a system where the service users of that age range will never interact with each other, is a massive problem.

And no I didn't just Google it, I unfortunately have dealings with Teenage Cancer Trust in real life, which is how I know this.

How, when children and adults are not in the same room or just on the same chat or meeting together virtually, are there no boundaries between them? Many, many services are delivered by the same people separately to children and adults, including over 25s. This is no different. Is it because they’re gay?

I find it very concerning how comfortable you are with a lack of clear boundaries between children and adults.

Read the very clear discription on their web page.

I have even copied an extract about this in my OP?

All these whatabouterry posts which aren't needed if you read their web page.

And lets not forget sometimes why young people need to ring an annonymous helpline is because they are not getting support at school and at home.

What would you do if you found out years later your child went through unecessary turmoil because they couldn't talk to you, and would hav welcomed an unknown outsider.

Its about letting them have the conversation.

It may end up with the young person realising they aren't same sex attracted but are gender non conforming.

This seems far preferable than contacting Stonewall and being told they must be trans.

Well I agree, but their position as I understand it is that there is no such thing as children who are LGB, but children who may go on to be LGB.

Anyway as it is more than likely there will be a tirade of complaints and referrals to authorities by Stonewall, Mermaids, etc., all of you who seem to think children shouldn't have acess to services will be happy when it is closed down.

That's shocking, I know the NHs is underfunded but mixing adults on the same wards as children is wrong. I would still hope and assume though their patients have separate and distinct safeguarding policies surely?

I'm sorry to hear that 💐

seems to be legitimate concerns voiced.

how can LGB teens call an organisation where the leadership don’t believe LGB kids exist?
ages 13 -24 are so vastly different. it does not make sense to group them together for this particular resource.

does having legitimate concerns over something mean they want it to not be available at all? is it all or nothing?

So the consensus here is because it's LGBA, and because the attacks are going to come from TWAW types, they'll be brushed aside?

And no one seems to want to face the fact that the LGBA had the chance to deliver a service and show clearly how they are different by not lumping kids in with adults - ever - but haven't taken it, have I got that right?

Not any old service, either, but one that is dealing with sex and sexual orientation. Aimed at 13 to 24 year olds. Children and adults.

Can people not see this or are the GC blinkers firmly on? Allison's are not:

x.com/bluskyeallison/status/1801705289764507918?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

x.com/bluskyeallison/status/1801685737567289713?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

Is she also to be ignored?

No it's about the service being marketed and advertised as a peer group. I would hope any sensible service would have a separate section for children and adults and for the volunteers to have separate policies depending on whether they are working on the child or adult service rather than flipping between children and adults minute to minute.

how can LGB teens call an organisation where the leadership don’t believe LGB kids exist?

You keep saying this but haven't posted a link that shows it was every actually said.

not sure i ‘keep’ saying this. i said it once. other posters have provided the information before me.

Well I've read the thread and haven't seen any evidence of this being the position of LGB Alliance.

As Safe Schools Alliance point out in replies, the grouping together of children and adults into the group 'young people' represents a safeguarding concern. 13-24 year olds are not a peer group, under-18s are children, and it's important to remember that in any safeguarding context, which a helpline for discussing sexual orientation, sexuality and sex absolutely is.

From listening to various members of LGBA (and other gay adults) speak on this issue I think what they're saying is that modern culture, in an effort to be accepting, is sometimes too keen to label children as LGB at too young an age and then make that a child's entire identity and sometimes associate the child with elements of the adult LGB community that aren't age-appropriate. They seem to feel that, as with gender identity, some parents are too keen to think that based on a child's behaviour and interests, long before puberty, that the child is definitely gay. They've mentioned that often these stereotypical behaviours can be but aren't 100% correlated to same-sex attraction in adulthood.

I think they want kids to be just treated as kids who will have the freedom to decide for themselves when they're teenagers or when they're adults whether they're L, G or B. I think that sounds like a sensible approach.

It's not a funding issue, it's done deliberately as young people do better together (socially/psychologically and medically) than when the under 18s are in a children's ward and the over 18 in an adult ward. It's a deliberate choice to put that peer group together, there is research to show that they do best together.

There are separate safeguarding policies for children and adults and the shared bedrooms only have either 18 and unders or over 18 sharing a bedroom. But the whole age range are cared for by the same staff (very well and sensitively to their needs and their stage of maturity).

If those staff can work safely and appropriately with that age range, all physically in a ward, I don't see why LGBA working individually across the same age range is so outrageous. But I feel I am derailing so will stop!

Yes, that makes sense to me.

The link from the website to the helpline is broken; here's a link to the website:

https://thelgbhelpline.org/

It'd be good to see links on there to the safeguarding policy etc as mentioned in the post OP linked to.

Any service offered to children has to be absolutely hard as nails on safeguarding.

I was completely shocked at how sloppy/shabby/careless some of the services for teens/young people are that are out there - I have in mind the one offering mental health support for schoolchildren, I forget its name. It seems that a culture of treating safeguarding casually has developed in the field of helplines/support services.

LGB Alliance needs to lead by example and show how to safely deliver a service with safeguarding at the forefront.

'Q: Can you be sure that children are kept safe when using your service?
This is our top priority.
Everyone who gets in touch will be connected directly, via live-chat, to a one-to-one conversation with a trained volunteer. There are no chat rooms and there is no peer-to-peer contact. We are alert to the fact that any service for young people is liable to be targeted by those who would seek to exploit their vulnerability and we have taken steps to guard against that.
All contacts will be asked how old they are so that the volunteer can respond to them in an age-appropriate and responsible manner. It will also ensure that they can advise children against risky or illegal contact with others.
Each volunteer who is responding to a contact will be overseen by another volunteer to ensure the appropriateness of their response and to help all volunteers to learn and improve.
All text-chats are saved, securely stored in the cloud, and are not accessible to anyone beyond the official administrators of the helpline.
All calls will be logged to include details of the caller’s age, the reason for the call and a summary of the outcome.'

At the same time, LGBA inevitably attract furious and vicious attacks constantly. It'll be doubly hard for them to parse out good faith, constructive criticism from those trying to undermine them because they disagree with their position on 'gender'.

Again if you read the actual web page you will see they make a distinction.

Why are so many continuing to post without having read the actual description.?

I've read the description, and LGBA's page, and the point about separating children from adults makes sense.

I'm sure this has the potential to be a really useful service, and they need to hold safeguarding at the forefront.

I have read the description.

I have explained my concern, which aligns with Allison Bailey's and SSA's concern.

Re-defining children as 'young people' is problematic.

It's Kate Harris, co-founder of LGB Alliance who's saying LGB kids don't exist.

This was posted earlier, from the Mermaids v LGBA court case.

Your reading comprehension is poor if you think that the quote you've posted supports what you're claiming,

The quote is making a subtle point, to distinguish between "LGB children" and being LGB as a child.

The LGB Alliance has just posted on Twitter (yes I know I need to work out how to do links) they have had 78 abusive and threatening calls, threats of rape and violence, in 3 hours