DOJ Soliciting $1 Million in Taxpayer Funding for National ‘LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit Youth’ Center

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is fielding applications for a grant totaling $1 million that will go toward creating an “LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit youth” national resource center.

The grant was listed in April and its deadline to apply is Wednesday. The program is also being offered through the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency, which provide federal leadership grants and sponsor research.

“This program furthers the Department’s mission by supporting juvenile justice systems reform by providing training and technical assistance to juvenile justice practitioners to assist them in meeting the needs of justice-involved LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit youth to ensure that contact with the juvenile justice system is rare, fair and beneficial,” the grant states.

The “resource center” will distribute “online curriculums” and “toolkits” and also “inform justice systems policies, practices, and/or programs,” according to the DOJ. There will be “regular training and technical assistance for juvenile justice practitioners and community-based stakeholders,” the DOJ says, explaining that the center will collaborate with state governments, police, courts and “community supervision agencies.”

The DOJ does not define in its grant document what the term “two spirit youth” means. However, it does say that “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Gender Non-Conforming and Two-Spirit youth, is an umbrella term” and are “youth who identify with a sexual or gender identity other than cisgender.”

“Two Spirit” means a Native American person who identifies “with a third gender” and has a masculine and feminine “spirit” in one body,” according to Johns Hopkins University.

It is unclear if there will be a physical location for the national center. There will be online resources in a “hub” that is a “clearinghouse” for information, DOJ says.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.