Care experienced LGBTQA + young people in out-of-home care in Australia: A case study.

• How LGBTQA + young people experience support, care and safety may depend on the relational context. • Warm, loving relationships may be just as significant for the development of positive gender and sexual identities as explicit support for identity formation. • For LGBTQA + young people, homophobia and transphobia may also be experienced as a disruption to their safe and secure base – that is, as robbing them both literally and figuratively, of a secure place to belong in society. • Growing up in a heteronormative environment can add to the challenges of receiving safe and stable care and amplify the struggle to be seen supported whilst in OOHC. This paper presents a case study that discusses the lived experiences of two LGBTQA + young people who have been in out-of-home care in Australia, focusing particularly on the influence of relationships on their developing sexual identity. Utilising a secure base theoretical perspective, we argue that how young people experience support, care and safety may depend on the relational context in which it is received, and that warm, loving relationships may be just as significant for the development of positive gender and sexual identities as explicit support for identity formation. The findings from the two narratives provide an argument in favour of the secure base model to support young LGBTQA + people in out-of-home care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]