A presentation offered by employees of the Hawaii Department of Health encourages staff and graduate students at the University of Hawaii Center for Cognitive Behavior Therapy not to document their conversations with LGBTQ+ youth in an effort to keep parents in the dark about their child's sexual identity.
The training, titled "Affirming practice with LGBTQ+ youth" and obtained by Fox News Digital through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, was delivered to staff and graduate students at the university on May 5 by two members of the Hawaii Department of Health’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division’s Safe Spaces Committee. The presenters were Kimberly Allen, chair of the Safe Spaces Committee, and Robin Lee, a member of the committee.
"Be careful about what you document – parents may be able to access the information," the presentation noted under a slide about confidentiality.
The same slide – which told viewers to "be aware of Hawaii’s age of consent for mental health services law for youth 14 and older" – also stated: "It should ALWAYS be the LGBTQ+ person’s decision to whom and when they disclose their orientation or identity. Being LGBTQ+ is not a safety risk, but being out could be."
Asked about the warning against documenting information related to LGBTQ+ students, Allen, in a statement provided through the state health department's communications office, told Fox News Digital, "When we say, ‘Be careful about what you document,’ we convey that clinicians, when deciding what words to use in documentation, should carefully consider the youth's individual situation and any harm that may arise from writing about a youth's identity in the medical record."
