Professor’s research sheds light on missing LGBTQ+ people across Europe

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – JUNE 10, 2024) Brian Frederick, assistant professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Science, explores the roots of missing LGBTQ+ youth in their research. The project began when Frederick was teaching at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom in 2022, working with Dr. Karen Shalev.

“We define missing as those who are homeless, those who have run away from home, or those who have been thrown away, unaccompanied asylum seekers, and those who are abducted,” Frederick said.  

Frederick said the research fills a gap in missing persons and homeless data across Europe.

“Not only are they missing, but they are also missing from the data,” Frederick said. “When kids go missing, it’s a big deal, we see amber alerts. But very rarely do we hear about kids who go missing because they’re queer, because they’re transgender. It’s important we capture those numbers because we don’t have their narratives, we don’t know why they decided to leave home.”

Frederick said bullying, stigma and discrimination, abuse, and being thrown out by family are only some of the reasons LGBTQ+ youth may go missing.

“It tends to be something going on in the family dynamic where they leave home,” Frederick said.

Frederick also serves as an expert for a group of European-based NGOs, including Missing Children Europe and the International Lesbian and Gay Youth Organization. As a member of that board, Frederick will craft questions to ask people who were formally missing based on a literature review analyzing causes and gaps in research.

During the interviews, Frederick and the research team will ask why people were missing, what kind of support was there, or what kind of support was needed: questions that then help Frederick identify gaps in support programs across the European Union.

“We’ll take the interviews and turn it into a training document for LGBTQ+ organizations and police,” Frederick said. “By the time this is done, I will have probably mapped close to 1,000 organizations.”

Frederick’s interest in missing LGBTQ+ youth stems from personal experience as a missing young person at fifteen years old, when they were displaced for five weeks. Frederick said that experience as a formerly missing LGTBQ+ person, a criminologist, and an expert LGBTQ+ issues allow them to bring a different perspective to this research.

“It has a particularly special meaning for me to be involved in a project like this and they know this,” Frederick said.