Disabled LGBTQI+ Youth and SSI
Reading Time: 2 MinutesLast Updated: February 1, 2024
Roughly 2 million LGBTQI+ youth attend public and private high schools across the United States. About 15% of students today receive special education services – and 1/3 of those students have learning disabilities. Students who are both LGBTQI+ and have a disability often lack the resources necessary to perform well at school.
Tools to Succeed
Schools have different tools to create inclusive environments for LGBTQI+ students with disabilities and help them thrive and succeed. One example is the Individualized Education Program (IEP) for students in public school, and the Instructional/Individual Service Plan (ISP) for those in private school.
Families, teachers, school psychologists, youth specialists, and school administrators work together to develop plans that are tailored to a given student. This includes outlining a legally binding agreement over any specialized services, accommodations, and curriculum modifications the student will receive.
As IEPs and ISPs are unique to each student, there are strategies that can be employed to ensure that they are inclusive. For example, as outlined in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Welcoming Schools resource guide on Advocating for LGBTQ Students with Disabilities, schools can accommodate a transgender student by using their chosen name and pronoun, and train members of their IEP team on LGBTQI+ cultural competency.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Social Security can help eligible students through the SSI program. SSI provides monthly payments to children who:
- Are under age 18 and have physical or mental condition(s) that seriously limits their daily activities for a period of 12 months or more or is expected to result in death.
- Live in a household with limited income and resources.
When you apply for SSI payments for your child based on a disability, Social Security will ask you for detailed information about:
- The child’s medical condition.
- How the child’s medical condition affects their ability to perform daily activities.
You’ll need to give permission to the doctors, teachers, therapists, and other professionals who have information about your child’s condition to share information to Social Security. Their Guide for School Professionals outlines how a child’s IEP and other evidence helps Social Security make disability determinations.
By providing the necessary support, we can help LGBTQI+ students with disabilities overcome the various challenges they face compared to their peers.
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Our posting of this blog does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation of any non-Social Security organization, author, or webpages.
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Kiwi W.
Ok , I’m not sure anyone cares but ,I’m a 55 year young lesbian with 3 kids and disabled. Hell sometimes hurts just sitting over 15 – 20 minutes. Moved to mn away from the big city for a calmer life. Been here 6 years paid rent on time. Now lease is up can’t get anyone to rent to us , help we need a home fast a?
Vonnie1267$
I’m 56 now been on disability since 2919 now I’m 56 my cancer has gotten to be terminal now I was told I only have 6 months to live can I switch over from my SSDI TO EARLY RETIREMENT THROUGH SSA?
Crystal B.
We’re sorry to hear of your condition, Vonnie. The earliest age you can get retirement benefits is 62. In the event of your death, certain members of your family may be eligible for Survivors Benefits. We hope this information is helpful.
John S.
Catering to the LGBTQ+ community is not the mission of the SSA. Better you should protect our funds from the marauding government officials then take on a completely foreign issue to what it is you do.
Patricia B.
I’m not Latino but I have been with one for 24 years in a straight relationship. My son has transgendered to a female
and my man finds it very upsetting. Ten years now and he still doesn’t accept it. He says his nephew is a cross-dresser & he won’t accept that either. I don’t really like it, but he is happier living that way. No one knows the pain of the mother, whose perfect child is born from her body inadequately to be the father’s cherished son, only to desire to find the son wearing makeup and dresses 👗.That was me. I never suspected it, but when I returned home from the hospital, many years later for something else, I was in shock, & I had to accept it. He was in his mid-20’s. He said he was afraid of girls. I never knew that either. He had always looked so tough, hung out with the bad boys, raced his car, had his pants hanging down below his underwear with big expensive Lugz boots 🥾 on. Who would ever believe it? But there
he was, going out to a drag show and I
don’t mean dragster cars. All I could do was hold back my tears and tell him I loved him no matter what. You have to love your kids no matter what. I kept thinking of the silly mistakes that I had made as a teenager that didn’t please my parents. They didn’t like some of the boys I brought home, like that, boy, today’s youth are so different. I just had to swallow my pride. I love him/her. And so does his natural father. So he is very fortunate. I could not understand the verbiage of the person I am commenting on. But I feel empathy for him, knowing how people react to this new craze of coming out of the closet and wearing the clothes of the opposite gender. I often have to soften blows to my child’s ego, whenever others are cruel
and unkind. He has had surgery, so there is no turning back for him. P.
John J.
I don’t agree.
Den
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Luis C.
As a non professional member of the LGBT&Q , la Latino male raised in the rough and difficult at times violent east Los Angeles neighborhood where the rough =the streets where the most difficult and at times violent scenarios where at HOME as one would by an unspoken dynamic our Independence of a Personal Agenda ( Sexuality) to be suppressed by the Unthinkable Sin of every single one of I can imagine myself as when we still deal with this issue in the acceptance of a personal liberty agenda . This issue is a Freedom not yet discovered , the liberty to talk about this is just that PROMOTING MY OPPORTUNITY TO DEMONSTRATE, the same as everyone one else with one exclusion.to freedom – violence And so peacefully we all have this right and if I choose to express my freedom in a mistaken form don’t deny me the opportunity to learn from my own mistakes.
Basically what I’m trying to *** explicate* with the best of my own ability of not having the understanding of how FREEDOM is not a part of my Latino Heritage It does not exist in the Spanish language where WE are obligated to defend our liberty by accusation of guilt and the for example ( UNLINEABLE God given right ) to prove our innocence in defense of LIBERTY to be express to Guilt before Innocence And here in America We are still available to Baby Development in it’s 3rd stage. Of language. .
Education begins at home , FREEDOM a powerful and complex word a modern time MISNOMER .
As a social security beneficiary I am understanding the fully favorable SSA community importance today I understand my disability better and the only thing wrong with me in my entire life has always been someone’ else idea or ( MORE LIMITED then capable according to the administration law judge who honored us all with expectations to return to gainful activity . It was this LGBT&Q necessity for my lack of acceptance that cost me most of my entire lively hood witch after 46 years and 25 years sexually expressing the limitations of a LGBT&Q I can truly say it IS THAT MY LIMITATION In the lack of acceptance in.other own ideology of no freedoms