Lgbt Youth Homelessness

I wonder if the mayor understands what it means to put a kid on the street. Does he know that many will be forced to resort to prostitution? Does he know that 20 percent of the LGBT kids will become infected with HIV? Does he know that 60 percent will consider or attempt suicide?

Recently I published an open letter to Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, calling his attention to the epidemic numbers of LGBT youth being rejected by their parents and forced into homelessness. Last week I received the following reply from Cardinal Dolan.

I am writing to you on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of LGBT youths who have been driven from their homes by parents unwilling or unable to accept their own children because they are gay.

We know LGBT youth homelessness is not like the issues of marriage equality or the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," both more "palatable" not only to the public but to those who help fund and drive the agenda for LGBT equality. But we must do whatever we can to make it a priority.

We are thrilled that today, March 9, 2012, the Ruth Ellis Center will partner with the White House Office of Public Engagement and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to hold the first-ever LGBT Conference on Housing & Homelessness.

This past weekend over 20 churches and synagogues in New York City sounded the alarm on the LGBTQ youth homelessness crisis. We continue to demand that our government commit to our young people, and commit to funding safe shelter for our homeless.

Family rejection and its tragic consequences are hardly new problems. But for many years, providers and advocates for homeless LGBT youth have, for many reasons, focused on the youth themselves, giving little attention to their families.

HARD by the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel, on one of the last ungentrified blocks of Midtown Manhattan, Metropolitan Community Church sits sandwiched be...

A solution to the homeless youth problem that is affecting not only Chicago's Boystown but other urban areas all over the country will involve more than just one father figure, for it takes a queer village to raise our children, too.

There is something about compartmentalizing my relationships that gives me stability: college roommates, professional acquaintances, Twitter friends, best friends, boyfriends, fiancé. Mingling things seems likely to lead to a tangled mess.

I witnessed Chicago's gay community conflicted over at-risk LGBT youth and the violence they brought upon Boystown. It got me thinking about getting older, the stability of settling down, and what it means to make a family of one's own.