‘Sanctuary Palm Springs’ will offer safe haven for LGBT youth

“What we wanted to do was create a home that is family-oriented. So we are rephrasing it, it’s not a group home it’s an LGBT family home,” said David Rothmiller, founder of Sanctuary Palm Springs, a soon-to-be safe haven for LGBT foster teens.

Rothmiller and his husband, LD Thompson are licensed foster parents who want to revolutionize foster care for local teens who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning.

“They are the ones who are most often bounced, most often to runaway, most often the ones to cut themselves or commit suicide. they’re the most often to end up homeless,” Thompson said.

Eighteen percent of the more than 4,000 foster kids and teens in Riverside County identify as LGBT.

The Palm Springs couple wants to make sure when these kids decide to come out about their sexual orientation or gender identity, they have a family to come home to who accepts them for who they are.

Thompson wrote a 90-page pilot program proposal that lays out a plan for the state’s first LGBT family home right here in Palm Springs.

Sanctuary Palm Springs will house six teens between 12 and 17 years old, and offer them mentoring and college prep services. The teens will be placed there by the county.

“Whatever they want to learn they can learn. If they want to learn art, they’ll be mentored by an LGBT artist, if they want to learn car mechanics, they’ll learn from an LGBT mechanic,” Rothmiller said.

The program is currently being reviewed by the county’s community care licensing office. The next step is for Rothmiller and Thompson to secure a home to be transformed into the sanctuary.

They believe they’ve found one, but won’t share its location just yet.

“It’s somewhere in Palm Springs,” Thompson said.

“The first will be in Palm Springs and then we see Sanctuary Indio, Sanctuary L.A.,” Rothmiller added.

They hope teens who graduate from the sanctuary go on to inspire other LGBT youth to know being different doesn’t mean missing out on the love of a family.

“My hope is they would have all the skills they need to live a successful, happy love-filled life,” Thompson said.

“Our motto is ‘Where different is normal.’ For the kids to understand they’re already part of a larger community who cares about them,” Rothmiller said.

For more information, visit: www.sanctuarypalmsprings.org/