This article speaks to an issue which is absent in the current discourse that we see in television news media. While the issue of gay marriage seems to get much attention, glbt youth are often ignored. Some of the most vulnerable within the queer community are the youth, and the obstacles they face are many. While some of us take this on as an issue near and dear to our hearts, it is not paid much attention from many. If we were to put more of a focus on this issue ourselves and pressured the media to follow suit, I think that it would have a great impact. The impact would be felt not only by the glbt youth but by us all. I think that if more of the American public were forced to look at the hardships faced by many of our youth, they would begin to look at glbt people much differently.
The following is an article from the Washington Blade
Report: Homelessness among U.S. gay youth an 'epidemic'
Up to 42 percent of homeless or runaway youth are gay
NEW YORK (AP) | Dec 15, 12:01 AM
When Angelika Santiago was 18 and changing her identity from male to female, her mother issued an ultimatum: Cut her hair and dress as a boy or leave their apartment.
Santiago left their Manhattan home and ended up in a shelter for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, youths.
"She wanted me to be a boy, deny who I was inside," Santiago recalled.
Santiago eventually gained her independence, landing a receptionist job and renting a room for $165 a week. But after losing the job and the room a few weeks ago, she found herself staying at another shelter.
Santiago, now 20, is part of an "epidemic" of homelessness among LGBT youth, according to a new report released Thursday by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and the National Coalition for the Homeless.
Up to 42 percent of the 575,000 to 1.6 million youths who are considered homeless or runaway are lesbian, gay or transgender, according to the report, "An Epidemic of Homelessness."
In New York, no one knows how many homeless youths there are let alone how many of them are LGBT, city officials acknowledged. But the estimate is that there are 30,000 homeless youths, of whom 8,400 are LGBT.
"Now that we have a report that sadly documents how big a problem the issue of homelessness among young LGBT people is," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, "it will make it much more difficult for government to ignore or walk away from that problem."
Solutions mentioned at the announcement included increasing the number of shelter beds for LGBT young people and expanding services designed for them to help them become self-sufficient.
Quinn and Councilmen Lewis Fidler and Alan Gerson noted that $1.2 million of the $2.6 million set aside in the budget passed this year for beds for at-risk, runaway and homeless youth is for LGBT homeless youth services.
The budget also calls for $50,000 for an independent count and demographic breakdown of the city's homeless youth population. That count will be conducted in the spring, city officials said.
More than a quarter of the LGBT youth who came out to their parents or guardians were kicked out, and once on the street they're particularly vulnerable to mental health problems and diseases such as AIDS, said the report, which relies mostly on government statistics and existing studies on that population.
Nicholas Ray, an analyst who authored the report for the task force's Policy Institute, said Danny, a gay homeless youth he met in Colorado, denied he was engaged in prostitution.
"He said, 'I go to the library and get on (internet gay sites) just to find a place to sleep for the night. Not for money. I'd sleep with them just so I had a place to stay,"' Ray recalled.
In New York, there are three or four shelters specifically for homeless LGBT youth with a total of about 65 beds, and each often has a waiting list, said officials from those shelters, who attended the announcement.
Also, openly gay homeless youth often recount stories of being mistreated, harassed or turned away from other shelters, particularly faith-based ones, city and shelter officials said.
Santiago, who is living in another shelter, is looking for a job. She wants her own place eventually.
"This needs to stop," Santiago said of homelessness among LGBT youth. "These kids cannot live like this, and they are kids. They can range from 12 and on, and it's not fair, and it's not right."
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Comments: 19
Ironic isn't it how "family values" people are quick to kick their children out? I know a lot of gay youth counselors who basically tell them that if possible, they should avoid coming out to their parents until they're self-sufficient, and this is why.
The problem lies with a moral code that is based on religion and on "God's will" (or, more accurately, what some religious authority says God wants), rather than one that views human life as the standard of value. Under an objective moral code that views human life, not "God's will," as the standard of value (ie of right or wrong), there is no basis for condemning people who are GLBT. Being GLBT is neither harmful to oneself, nor does it injure others. On the contrary, it would and should be considered immoral and unjust to condemn or reject someone for that reason (ie because he/she is GLBT), and all the more so if that someone is one's own child.
I knew one transgender wannabe, My exgirlfriends brother. He was a normal married man, totally fun to hang out with, watch football etc. He was the coolest brother (she had 3) in my opinion. He got a divorce and the next thing you know he comes over, after disappearing for a year, and claims he was supposed to be a female and was seeing doctors about an operation. Last time I saw him he was wearing hot pants and some kind of push up shirt and it still gives me the creeps.
I dont know if he ever got the operation as I havent talked to him or my ex in over 3 years but I do know that divorce messed him up. I am glad that seeing a psychiatrist is part of the process but if I went to a psychiatrist demand that I was supposed to be born with only one arm and that I wanted one cut off I might end up in lockdown. Also I dont think a doctor would do such a surgery do to ethics. I just think all this relativism where people rationalize insane behavior is a detrimemt to soiety.
Melissa dont feel bad for me. I am scandinavian and proud and lucky to be so. Yeah I studied the Indians. I loved the way they respected the land. The peaceful ones anyways. I love learning about people mand ciultures other than mine.
Self mutilation is not a lifestyle ort culture its a mental disease. Get over yourself....just because you have the ability to "understand" the insanity doesnt make you special, it makes you an enabler.
Merry Christmas.
I believe in God and that is why I think God should never be used as a reason to hate anyone. In the case of GLBT religion is one of the man reason sited why this is "wrong" and breeds hate, I do truly believe if God doesn't like it, he'll be the one to judge, not us mere humans. We shouldn't play God and that's what the religious types are doing, they are judging where it's God's job to do so.
Having sad all that, I hope that people start to really embrace what they believe and treat each other how we deserve to be treated. Stop the Hate I say. :-)
Ignorance and hatred abounds. But it is at its worst if it is between parents and their children. If there is a heaven and hell, I'm sure these people will end up in hell.
A few months, ago, my niece told me that one of her friends came out in junior high school, and there were no repercussions whatsoever. Apparently most, including his parents, had already guessed his sexual orientation.
I hope this is a sign of the times.