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Quote - Angelika Torres is a 20-year-old transgender person who’s homeless and jobless. "When I was a freshman in college, my parents issued me an ultimatum to cut my hair and identify myself as male and or leave my apartment." Homelessness among GLBT youth in America is much higher proportionately than among those who are heterosexual, according to a new report. Other Useful Links http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-6566.cfm http://www.transgenderzone.com/library/hl/abstract/34.htm Homelessness among all ages is a serious and growing problem. The federal government estimates that the total number of homeless and runaway youth ranges from 575,000 to 1.6 million. The study prepared by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Policy Institute and the National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that 20 to 40 percent (320,000 to 640,000) are GLBTs, a figure that the organizations call "grossly disproportionate" given that only 3 to 5 percent of Americans self-identify as gay or lesbian. The report’s author calls the problem "an epidemic within an epidemic." While family conflict is the main reason youth of all sexual orientations run away or become homeless, rejection of children because of their sexuality or gender identity exacerbates the problem, the report contends. According to a study cited in the report, the parents of half of gay teens reacted negatively when they came out and 26 percent were kicked out of their homes. Another study found that more than a third of youth who are homeless or in the care of social services experienced a violent physical assault when they came out. Such treatment often leads such youth to leave a homeless shelter or foster care because they believe they would be safer living on the streets. For GLBT youth, homelessness causes a multitude of problems, including mental health issues, substance abuse and risky sexual behavior. They are seven times more likely than heterosexual youth to be victims of a crime. And even though there’s not much academic research on the subject, preliminary evidence cited in the study shows that if they wind up in the juvenile and criminal justice systems, they are disproportionately victims of harassment and violence, including rape. The problem is particularly acute for transgender youth. Estimates are that as many as one in five transgender people need or are at risk of needing homeless shelters. Yet most shelters are segregated by birth gender, regardless of the individual’s gender identity. Homeless transgender youths are even ostracized by some agencies that serve gays, lesbians and bisexuals. Government isn’t doing much about the epidemic, homeless GLBT youth advocates say. During a telephone news conference Jan. 30, NGLTF Executive Director Matt Foreman said, "The national response has been disgraceful," and called on Congress to appropriate more funds for homeless youth, particularly GLBTs. Since 1974, when Congress passed the Runaway Youth Act, numerous pieces of legislation have addressed the problem. The most recent one is the Homeless and Missing Children Protection Act, signed into law in 2003 and up for reauthorization in 2008. While that law doesn’t allocate funding specifically for GLBT youth services, some funds go to agencies that serve them exclusively or do so as part of a broader mission. However, the programs have been grossly under-funded, according to the report. Among its recommendations are increasing appropriations. One of the problems for agencies serving homeless youth that seek federal funding is that the Bush administration rejects any grant applications that mention GLBTs, Foreman reported. "It is discouraging that there is no specific mention of this population in any of the grant streams," he noted. NGLTF policy analyst Nicholas Ray, the study’s author, said some shelters and programs allocate some of the $103 million the federal government provides for homeless youth to serve GLBTs, but it is less than $1 million, "just a pittance. The tragedy of this entire situation is that over the years funding has decreased year after year after year. In the reauthorization process, it is important to get it up to $140 million, which is about where it was when it was first authorized in 1999." "The national response has been disgraceful." -- NGLTF Executive Director Matt ForemanBesides increasing federal funding, the report’s recommendations include providing shelter and housing specifically for GLBT youth, extending health insurance and services via Medicaid to all low-income youth through the age of 24, mandating that all agencies seeking public funding and licensure to serve homeless youth adopt nondiscrimination policies for GLBT youth and requiring that all healthcare, social service, child welfare and juvenile justice agency staff receive sensitivity training. Asked how the public can help address the problem, Ray offered a number of suggestions, such as lobbying members of Congress and local and state lawmakers, making contributions to shelters and agencies that work with such youth, and volunteering. He offered as examples, "cooking dinner in a youth home, or serving as mentors to these youth and showing that people care about them in a very real sense." Two youth who have experienced homelessness participated in the Jan. 30 news conference. Angelika Torres is a 20-year-old transgender person who’s homeless and jobless. "When I was a freshman in college, my parents issued me an ultimatum to cut my hair and identify myself as male and or leave my apartment," she told reporters. She chose to leave home and eventually moved into Green Chimneys, a youth facility in New York City. Torres eventually gained her independence and landed a job as a receptionist, but is now unemployed. She’s now in a New York City emergency shelter. Dilo Cintron, now 25, has received homeless services since he arrived in the U.S. from the Virgin Islands when he was 18. "My parents first found out I was gay when I was having an affair with one of my teachers in school," he reported. "I got beat repeatedly and preyed upon." Later he was sent to live with an uncle in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., but moved in with an aunt when the uncle found out Cintron was gay. He returned to the Virgin Islands and "was jumping from place to place in St. Croix." He’s been in psychiatric and correctional facilities, but says he’s now "a more productive citizen of the community." Representatives of agencies having model programs serving homeless GLBT youth told reporters about their success stories. Those agencies include, in addition to Green Chimneys, the Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit; Urban Peak in Denver; Waltham House in Waltham, Mass., and Ozone House in Ann Arbor, Mich. Colby Berger of Waltham House, the first residential group home designed for GLBT youth in New England, said that when it opened in 2002 the staff was surprised that it didn’t get many referrals. That changed after it worked with the Massachusetts Department of Social Services to provide training for social workers and other professionals that set a national precedent. One of the problems the training discovered was that those who work with youth "don’t necessarily know how to start conversations on orientation or gender identity." Waltham House is now addressing the problem GLBT foster children face when they reveal their sexual orientation or identity--being kicked out and bounced around from one foster home to another--by designing a curriculum on GLBT youth that foster parents would be required to take. Grace McClelland of the Ruth Ellis Center discussed an outreach program it developed for homeless African-American GLBT youth after hearing some horror stories. Two youth have been shot and one was murdered just because he was gay, she reported. Mary Jo Callen of Ozone House said it serves both gay and straight youth. The staff works with straights to develop an understanding of gays and learn what is acceptable and unacceptable conduct. Visit www.thetaskforce.org to download a copy of the report, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth: An Epidemic of Homelessness. --- visit www.transgenderzone.com today |
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