Educate your young person (and yourself) about safer sex and HIV

Leave safer sex information and materials at home in a place they can easily be accessed without you seeing your young person doing so. Then, of course, you need to  tell your tween or teen where the materials are.

• Scarleteen Confidential: The Safer Sex Drawer

Items to include:

• External condoms of multiple sizes and kinds
• Internal condoms (sometimes referred to as "female condoms," although they can also be used anally — and not everyone with a vagina finds "female" an appropriate word)
• Water-based lube
• Dental dams
• Latex and/or nitrile gloves
• Finger cots
• Emergency contraception
• Instructions on how to use everything
• Places to go, online and in-person, for additional information or materials

You may need to do some research to find where a local, appropriate place might be. When in doubt, start with Planned Parenthood, which has many locations that provide effective, sensitive care for queer and trans young people.

Make sure your queer or trans young person (and any other children) know where these supplies are.

Check your supplies periodically and keep them stocked.

This might be a situation where it’s better to ask for forgiveness from your local child welfare agency than to ask for permission.

Your foster child has a right to complete, age-appropriate, and accurate information about their body.

• GSA Network Sexual Health Resources
• Many more suggestions are in the parents & mentors and youth resources sections of R2T2.