Tag: youth

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Cyndi Lauper to Open Shelter for GLBT Youth

Cyndi Lauper is using her stint on The Celebrity Apprentice to further her already vocal support for gay rights. She recently launched the Give a Damn campaign through her True Colors Fund. The new campaign encourages everyone — gay, straight, transgender, lesbian, bisexual — to get informed about and involved with LGBT issues and causes. Now, Lauper is localizing her campaign even more by opening a shelter for homeless LGBT youths in Harlem. According to DNA Info, advocates say that "Many homeless LGBT youth face violence in mainstream shelters, forcing them to rely on a small network of gay-friendly facilities."The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force reports that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 homeless youths in New York City, and, of that number, roughly 3,000 to 8,000 of them identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The True Colors Residence, which is slated to open in 2011, will offer a safe haven for LGBT youths between the ages of 18 to 24 who need a place to stay while they get back on their feet. It will be the first permanent residence in Manhattan for LGBT homeless young adults. The $11 million of funding for the six-story building, which will "contain 30 studio apartments, communal space, a library and a computer room" will come from Lauper's True Colors Fund, the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development and some additional corporate, city and state sources. In a statement about what inspired her to open the new shelter, Lauper said: "Kids are coming out in greater numbers as they see themselves accepted and represented on TV and in movies, but they’re still being kicked out of their homes or running away and living on the streets. We need to make sure we’re taking care of them. This is the next generation of the LGBT community." The four emergency and two transitional shelters that currently exist in New York City only provide temporary solutions for LGBT youths coping with difficult living situations or negative feedback in response to their coming out. Many youth programs only shelter people up to the age of 21, so the 3 year addition to the age span at the True Colors Shelter will help even more young adults transition through what is often an extremely difficult time in their lives.

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STREET STUDY: Gay & Homeless

Homelessness is an incalculable epidemic. Estimates of youth homelessness range from 575,000 to approximately 2 million. Definitive numbers are difficult to get, but it is believed the LGBT community makes up approximately 20 to 30 percent of homeless youth aged 12 to 24 years old — a disproportionate amount if the LGBT community makes up anywhere from three to ten percent of the general population. Among the homeless LGBT community, African-Americans and American Indians are over-represented. Counting LGBT homeless youth or adults is difficult, primarily because many homeless agencies do not track or report numbers on the sexual orientation or gender-identity of their clients. In late February, however, Charlotte, North Carolina housing officials and local homeless ministry conducted a survey to compile a “vulnerability index” in an effort to understand the problem of homelessness, and end it. The survey included questions to identify the numbers of transgender people living on the streets in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County LGBT youth are on the streets for a variety of reasons. According to a 2007 report issued by the National Alliance to End Homelessness about 25 percent of these youth leave home because of familial rejection. Many homeless people turn to prostitution or other survival techniques — exposing themselves to drug abuse, HIV infection or the possibility of being a victim of rape or a hate crime. The study said lesbians are more likely to experience post-traumatic stress syndrome, conduct disorder and alcohol and substance abuse compared to their straight counterparts. In the same study gay homeless males are less likely to meet criteria for alcohol abuse than their heterosexual homeless peers, but they were more likely to have episodes of depression or depressive disorders. Both lesbians and gay men are at a higher risk of attempting suicide when compared with their peers. The Homelessness Resource Center suggests outreach and education to families as a means of reducing the number of LGBT youths on the street. But when education fails, and youth are left without a home, many are unable to find reliable, consistent, safe housing due to lack of funding. Recently, national attention has been drawn to the epidemic. The Advocate reported last August that late actress Bea Arthur left $300,000 to a homeless shelter for LGBT youth in New York. A few months later singer Lady Gaga partnered with Virgin Mobile to raise awareness about youth homelessness. A 2007 New York Times article reort funding for LGBT youth programs narrowly exceeded $1 million—less than 1 percent of all funds spent on homelessness issues each year. There are no shelters for LGBT youth in the Carolinas, although several areas provide awareness programs, education, and counseling from volunteers. Work by seasoned professionalsis simply out of the question, according to Steve Bentley, executive director of Time Out Youth (TOY) in Charlotte. TOY receives 60 percent of its funding from fundraisers and private donations. Local companies supply the remaining 40 percent. “Time Out Youth receives no funding from the government,” Bentley said. The lack of funds limits what TOY is able to accomplish. Because of that lack of resources, Bentley says real family support to keep children at home and off the streets is the best option. TOY provides counseling and education for both youth and their parents. In last case, emergency scenarios, TOY also provides limited temporary, overnight housing for youth in crisis. — Stay tuned to a future issue of qnotes for more on LGBT homelessness in Charlotte and across the Carolinas. This article appears in the March 20-April 2 print edition of Q-Notes

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Special Report: 640,000 Homeless Gay Youth (150 on a given night in NYC engage in 'survival sex')

In the United States 575,000 to 1.6 million youth are homeless each year, of which 20-40% identify as LGBT. (Source for numbers is a report from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force) This means 115,000 to 640,000 LGBT youth are homeless per year. Twenty-six percent of LGBT youth that come out to their parents are kicked out of their home. Twenty-five to thirty-three percent of homeless youth have engaged in survival sex. Forty-two percent of LGBT youth abuse alcohol. Nearly 50% of LGBT homeless youth have attempted suicide. Across the United States, thousands of kids are kicked out of their homes each year for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT ). In some cases, homophobic families dump them on the streets like litter. In other homes, kids run away in fear of retribution or as a result of ridicule.

They have nowhere to go. And the problem grows worse as American youth are “coming out” at increasingly early ages. Across our country we are failing to address this problem. Carl Siciliano is the executive director of the Ali Forney Center in New York City. The organization provides emergency and transitional shelter for LGBT youth. As Siciliano himself admits, the gay rights movement and its allies are failing to address the problem. “I don’t think there are 200 beds in the country for gay youth,” he says. “I have stood on the steps and declared war on homelessness. I have done as much as I can to raise awareness,” Fidler (New York council member Lewis Fidler) said. “And still, Brittany [Spears] can climb into a cab without underwear and get three pages in the paper, but I can’t get three columns on kids who are couch surfing, who are selling their bodies to survive, who are exposed to unspeakable horrors.” Fidler believes the only way to truly address the issue is through a mass social movement. “My belief is that if people knew that on the streets of this city in this day there are children by the hundreds who are sleeping on the streets, if this problem were known, then the public would create the political will to solve it.” Meanwhile, however, young people like Damien Corallo will remain on the margins. “A lot of us feel rejected, like there is no place for us,” Corallo said. “We’re the bottom of the barrel.” Damien is 18 years old and transgender, and his brother is gay.

“One day our aunt told us she didn’t want any faggots in the house. And we figured out that she had given our rights over to the state. So we left,” Corallo said. “I’ve lived in 32 group homes or foster homes. I’ve lived in shelters, halfway houses, safety houses. I’ve been into lock-up, stuck in residentials. I have been in every kind of home. I went to juvie for drugs. I used to inject drugs and snort coke. I was in for about a year. It was not friendly. It was a Missouri state jail and then I went to rehab.”

You can read Damien's story and the stories of others at the Indypendent.  

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24 Hour Help For Gay Youth

(CNN) -- The transgendered woman on the other end of the line was threatening to kill herself by jumping off of a parking structure. The Trevor Helpline counselor who answered the phone worked to get the 24-year-old calm and immediately called police for help. Exactly one month later, that same woman called the helpline back -- to thank them for saving her life. Stories like these are the reason The Trevor Project operates its helpline, the only nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and suicide prevention number for gay and questioning youth. More than 500 volunteers are trained for 40 hours to run the bicoastal call centers. "There's a high level of stress that youth face in the transition from youth to adulthood," Charles Robbins, executive director of The Trevor Project, said. "Add on top of that the challenges of sexual orientation or gender identity and we get 15,000 calls a year." A 2005 Massachusetts Department of Education survey of 3,500 high school students, in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found almost 11 percent have seriously considered suicide. And that percentage is almost four times as high for 10 to 24-year-olds who identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual. "Because of the unfortunate stigma that still exists in the United States around homosexuality ... youth tend to hold back their feelings, don't disclose, live in denial or shame," Robbins said. Every year The Trevor Project honors one individual who publicly works to reject that stigma and helps in the group's overall goal: to promote the acceptance of gay and questioning youth in society. This year's honoree, actor Alan Cumming, has been "unapologetic, and true to himself," Robbins said. "Anything that helps those people have a voice and have someone to talk to and have somewhere to turn is really important," Cumming said. "Suicide is in the top three causes of death for teens. That's a shocking statistic." Watch Cumming talk about The Trevor Project » The Trevor Project began in 1998, named after the short film "Trevor" that won an Academy Award in 1994. To encourage open discussions about suicide, personal identity and sexual orientation, the organization created The Trevor Survival Kit. The kit includes the DVD of "Trevor" and a classroom teaching guide. "All of these resources are helpful and necessary for gay and questioning youth because it's important for them to understand that they are not alone, that there is a safe place for them to find someone to listen, and most importantly, that their lives are valuable," Jacqueline Wing, communications manager for The Trevor Project, wrote in an email.

For more information on The Trevor Project, or to see a list of suicide warning signs, visit www.thetrevorproject.org. To contact the helpline, call 1-866-488-7386 or (866) 4.U.TREVOR.