Engaging young gay adults in the criminal justice system.

How do I more effectively encourage gay young adults in the criminal justice system to engage with the larger gay community? (long question) As a social worker in the criminal justice system I am regularly in contact with young gay men and women who are entering the criminal justice system for the first time as felony drug offenders. Many of the offenders I work with have never encountered the city's larger gay community. They come from extremely small worlds; many have barely ever left their neighborhoods let alone hung out with groups of other young, gay adults. Picture Snoop from the Wire as a typical young lesbian I encounter; rough drug dealer girls who pride themselves on being hard like the corner boys. The young gay men more typically come from tough white working class neighborhoods but have a similarly limited amount of exposure to larger gay culture.

Both groups have limitations in terms of literacy, substance abuse problems, often co-occuring mental health disorders, often histories of sexual abuse. Breaching the subject of sexuality is something I've only done once with a client I was extremely close to, who I felt trusted me enough that I could suggest that she try to plug into the larger gay community by contacting the local gay and lesbian community center to see what kinds of services and programs they have for young black gay women.

She was totally cool with me bringing it up, but seemed...not disinterested, more like the suggestion just didn't make a lot of sense. She clearly didn't understand why she would want to plug in with the larger gay community, or what doing so would do for. I tried to explain what I felt would be the benefits of plugging in with some other young gay women, but wasn't really able to create a spark of interest. At that point I dropped it, because as a social worker I feel it's more important for me to focus on the things my clients feel are important, rather than what I think might be important for them.

The thing is that our program is constantly telling clients about the importance of changing people, places and things, which for many of our clients is next to impossible. They don't know anyone who isn't dealing or using drugs, and usually live on blocks where everyone is dealing and using drugs under their noses all the time. I feel like with my gay clients I have a chance to engage them in this other world of positive support they are completely unaware of if only I could plug them into the gay community. But I'm not sure how to best go about it consindering that my gay clients are often hardened street kids who distrust anyone who doesn't come from their neighborhood and have maybe never even been downtown except to go to court.

I'm hoping for some protips from the gay community here on AskMe. Thanks.

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