NURS 601 Capstone I: Exploring Transgender Adolescent Homelessness

This assignment, a discussion for a Capstone I course (NURS 601), examines the issue of homelessness and trauma among transgender adolescents. It explores the research question of why these adolescents are targets of homelessness and the underlying causes. The assignment presents a qualitative hypothesis focusing on the trauma experienced by transgender individuals, connecting it to the research question. It also includes a literature review on the topic, citing relevant studies and statistics on the LGBTQ community's homelessness rates, particularly in California and other states. The discussion addresses the challenges faced by transgender youth, including family rejection, societal stigma, and vulnerability to harmful environments. The paper follows APA style and includes references. The specific aims and research questions are clearly defined. The assignment aims to understand the reasons behind the homelessness of transgender adolescents and potential interventions to support them.

Running Head: TRANSGENDER ADOLESCENTS
TRANSGENDER ADOLESCENTS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Discussion question 1
This research study hopes to accomplish and find more literature review about the
homeless adults who are transgender and are going through trauma. Teenagers in the United
States of America are a target of trauma and homelessness as they are coming out as a
transgender person. People with an orthodox mentality are not in favour or transgender or binary
people, which is making them unsheltered. This is mainly found in California and a few other
states, and teenagers are being kicked out of their homes because they are not able to fit the
constructed framework of the society. They are being disowned, and these adolescents do not
even know where they will find a place to sleep next. An estimation suggests that more than 40%
of the population of homeless youth in California are identified from the LGBTQ community.
National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) 2018 has counted that more than half of the
unsheltered population with the transgender traits are living in California. In San Francisco, 46%
of the unsheltered adolescents tend to be LGBTQ and around a quarter of them are identified as
non-binary and transgender (Auerswald, Lin & Parriott, 2016). The issue with these transgender
youth is that they do not feel safe because of the people around them after they accept their
identity, which makes them run or flee to another state or county. They tend to avoid the shelter
system after they run away, and that makes them vulnerable to harmful habits and substance
abuse leading to criminal activities. These adolescents with a weak foundation and no strong
background get maltreated and sometimes sexually abused due to their vulnerability, which
increases the issues of transgender adolescents becoming homeless. These adolescents are
already coming from a poor background and mostly from different ethnicities as they are
immigrants (Fraser et al., 2019). Some of them come from foster care as they are already an
orphan and have gone through social stigmas of the society. Ones they are homeless they become

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an easy target for predators such as paedophilia, sex workers, abductors and other such social
evils that are not preferable for adolescents. One of the significant issues of becoming a part of
illegal sexual activity is being susceptible to HIV and AIDs. Racial discrimination is another
issue in America that leads to children growing homeless as whites are a dominant group
because there are 42% of homeless Afro-American and 20% of Hispanic that contributes to the
total population of America (Begun & Kattari, 2016).
The statement of the problem is the adolescents who are transgender are becoming
unsheltered, which is the reason for their trauma. The study will be about the reasons behind
such intervention of kicking children out of their houses due to their sexual preferences and the
measures taken to reduce this particular issue that can affect these adolescents in the more
considerable aspect. They need to be given a counselling so that they can overcome these issues.
The research question is how these adolescents are a target of homelessness, and what is the idea
behind such punishment?
Discussion question 2
The hypothesis is going to be qualitative as it will give the result about the reasons behind
these adolescents suffering from homelessness after they reveal that they are transgender or
LGBTQ. The stigma of being a transgender person is the reason for such callous reaction in
families and foster care. The hypothesis is the trauma a transgender adult goes through after
becoming homeless. This ties to the research question developed in the prior part of the paper,
which questions about the triggers behind such actions and the reasons related to the adolescents
becoming homeless. As it is seen that most of the population that is left homeless have been
identified from the LGBTQ community. The research has to be focused on the qualitative aspect
of the topic because it is a broad field to explore. The quantitative data is already provided, and

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the qualitative information needs to be researched so that the primary cause of the mindset
behind the idea of someone being a transgender person can be known, which is making them
homeless. The feelings and perceptions of transgender people in society give an idea about the
reaction they cause. The research question looks after such purposes as it is necessary to find
some interventions that could be used for the betterment of the youth who are vulnerable to
illegal sexual activities and sexually transmitted diseases. Homeless adolescents who are
transgender go through several types of trauma that affects their wellbeing (Shelton, 2015).

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References
Auerswald, C. L., Lin, J. S., & Parriott, A. (2016). Six-year mortality in a street-recruited cohort
of homeless youth in San Francisco, California. PeerJ, 4, e1909.
Begun, S., & Kattari, S. K. (2016). Conforming for survival: Associations between transgender
visual conformity/passing and homelessness experiences. Journal of Gay & Lesbian
Social Services, 28(1), 54-66.
Fraser, B., Pierse, N., Chisholm, E., & Cook, H. (2019). LGBTIQ+ Homelessness: A Review of
the Literature. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(15),
2677.
Shelton, J. (2015). Transgender youth homelessness: Understanding programmatic barriers
through the lens of cisgenderism. Children and Youth Services Review, 59, 10-18.