I Need Advice Pennsylvania

[ryanthemusician]

I am 16 (turning 17 next month) living with my grandmother in Pennsylvania. All I have been thinking about lately is leaving home. I really want to be out in California with my friend who is 19. I really need to get away from home. First off, all of the bad things that happened to me in the past. My father neglected me, and my mother used to hit me for no reason. I cut off my relations with her when she assaulted me on my one sister's birthday. At home, I have to keep it a secret that I'm gay, since my grandmother is very religious. I tried coming out to her once, but she kept telling me how it is immoral and a sin. I feel depressed constantly. I just want to leave home to get away from all the bad memories. Is there a way that my friend from California can adopt me from my grandmother, who is also my guardian?

[cbg]

No. Absolutely not. There is no possible way that the court will approve a 19 year old who is not only out of state, but all the way across the country, "adopting" a 16 year old. (And if by any chance this 19 year old is a love interest, there is no court anywhere in the US that will approve your living with that 19 year old until you are no longer a minor.)

Unless the circumstances of your living situation are such that the state would find it necessary to remove you (and that means physical abuse, not your being unhappy or your grandmother not approving of your being gay), you're going to be living where you are until the earlier of your 18th birthday or the day your grandmother gives you permission to move out. If the circumstances ARE such that the state finds it necessary to remove you, they will place you in a court-approved home right there in Pennsylvania.

Bottom line is, you're not going to California until either you turn 18 or your grandmother says you may.

[Betty3]

Agree. If your grandmother is your legal guardian, you live where she says. When you turn 18, you can live where you want. It doesn't sound like your grandmother is abusing you. Even if she was, you would not get court approval to move to Ca. to be with a 19 year old. The court would decide where you live.