Young, Gay and Homeless - Fighting for Resources

I have been writing a column for VEER Magazine, a local arts/fashion/commentary publication since April, with my column topics covering a range of LGBT issues. For December, I'm supposed to write something holiday related. Yet it's often hard to have a positive mindset towards the holidays when so much of the repression and abuse the LGBT community receives is the direct result of the religious beliefs of self-anointed, self-congratulatory Christians. Folks, in fact, like the GOP candidates and the hosts at the toxic Christianist forum "Thanksgiving Forum" yesterday. The struggle to push aside contempt for religion in general and the religious aspects of the holiday season in particular is all the more difficult when one is confronted with the homeless LGBT youth who in so many cases have been thrown out of their homes by their self-styled God fearing parents. It certainly reinforces my desire to NOT be a Christian if these folks are the face of Christianity. NPR has a new story entitled "Young, Gay and Homeless" that looks at the plight of homeless LGBT youth. It's sad and depressing and underscores why we need to demand services for these youth and also support our local organizations that help such individuals. Here are highlights from the NPR piece:

A number of studies of homeless youth in big cities put forth a startling statistic: Depending on the study, somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of homeless youths identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

It's largely because gay youths are more often kicked out of their homes than straight youths. And even if they are not kicked out, they may feel so uncomfortable that they leave. In New York City, nearly 4,000 young people are homeless every night — many of them gay.

Seabron, the outreach coordinator for the Streetwork Project, says that "for the most part, the majority of youth we see who identify as being homeless also identify as being LGBT." Wood says not all of them are thrown out of their homes, although many are.

Each homeless young person has a different story.

Jeremiah Beaverly grew up in Wisconsin and Illinois. "The day after my 18th birthday this year, my adopted parent kicked me out," he says. "At the time, I was really infatuated with this guy, and she was listening to my phone calls. She started telling my family, 'He is this, he is that, he is gay,' and talking about me as if I wasn't part of the family." Beaverly was lucky — he had friends whose parents were more accepting. He stayed with them until he finished high school. Now, in New York City, he is in emergency housing — only available for 90 days.

"I went from shelters and couch-surfing to my own bed," he says. "I haven't slept in my own bed for almost a year, so it is really nice."

There are three organizations that cater to homeless gay kids in New York City.

Carl Siciliano is the founder and executive director of the Ali Forney Center, which he describes as the nation's largest organization dedicated to homeless LGBT youth. When he started the center almost 10 years ago, he says, "kids were dying in the streets; there was no shelter for gay youth; every couple of months, I would know someone who was murdered in the streets."

In the beginning, Siciliano's goal was just keeping kids safe. But as the years have gone on, he says, "it has become clear to me that we are living in a societal moment, where kids are coming out at younger and younger ages, and there are so many parents who can't be parents to their gay kids. They can't cope, they can't deal with it, their religion is in conflict with the reality of their kids' lives, and these kids are getting thrown away."

[I]t's a different kind of struggle to protect gay kids than the battles the movement has fought in the past.

"With adults, it's a fight for laws like marriage equality," he says. "It is not so much laws with the kids; it is economics. It's a fight for resources. That's what our community hasn't quite gotten yet; we have to fight for resources to protect our kids. How dare we say 'it gets better' to the kids if we are not willing to fight to make sure they have what they need."

There are only 250 beds for 3,800 homeless kids in New York City; waiting lists are huge. Facing a $10 billion deficit, Gov. Andrew Cuomo made compromises with the New York state Legislature. Budget cuts would have taken 100 of those beds away. The city council restored monies cut from both the city and state budgets, so no beds have been cut.

Siciliano hopes the rally in late October is the beginning of a real campaign for youth shelter. They're calling for 100 more beds for homeless youth each year until the need is met. But homeless kids don't have power, money or votes. It's hard to believe they will be at the top of many politicians' list in future city and state budgets.

It breaks my heart when I think of these kids. I know a number of young gays who were thrown out by their parents because they were gay. I even gave money to one in order to help him get a place to live since he didn't have money for a security deposit. Their lives have been hard and they have often gone without - all because of religious based bigotry. As a parent myself, I cannot imagine throwing away one of my children - for any reason. Yet that's exactly what these "good Christians" do. Locally, the new LGBT center is helping such youth to the extent it can (e.g., a safe place to hang out, referrals to agencies, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, etc.), but no housing is available at present.