Posts Tagged As: Homeless Youth

Doubly Vulnerable: Homeless Gay Youth

Jim Burroway

April 7th, 2008

The Columbia Spectator today has a very disturbing story about some very significant threats that some gay youth phase. This story concerns 15-year-old Drew, an “ordinary teenager” from a good neighborhood in upstate New York, a good student getting good grades. But his pretty good life took an abrupt turn when he came out to his parents:

“It all changed the night I tried to tell my parents I was gay,” he said. “My mom was pretty cool with it, but my dad just freaked out and started screaming. Then he started hitting me.”

“He’d never hit me before, never,” he sobbed, “but when I told him who I was, that I was gay, he just got so mad. He said he was going to kill me and I believed him, so I ran.”

After spending a few nights sleeping at a friend’s house, Drew returned home, hoping that things might have calmed down.

“I tried to open the door, but my key didn’t work any more. So I started knocking and eventually my dad came to the door and told me that I was no longer his son and he never wanted to see me again. He said if I ever tried to get in touch with him or my mom again he’d find me and kill me,” he explained.

He now lives on the streets of New York’s Upper West Side, where he begs strangers for food and money. He often has to exchange unsafe sexual favors for it. It’s a dangerous way to drive the live, and the dangers don’t end there:

Terrified and devastated at losing his family, Drew fled to New York City, where he hoped people might be more accepting of his sexuality. But since arriving five months ago, Drew estimates that he has been beaten up on average once a week—just for being gay.

“Mostly it’s other homeless people who do it,” he said. “They find out you’re gay, and then they wait for a chance to punish you. When I first got here I went to a shelter, but once the other kids found out I was gay they started teasing me and then one day they all ganged up on me and beat me up. We weren’t in the shelter at the time so the staff didn’t know, but now I’m too scared to go back or to try another shelter in case it happens again. I prefer to take my chances on the streets.”

The Empire State Coalition estimates that somewhere between 25% and 40% of homeless youth in New York city are LGBT youth (PDF: 378KB/100 pages). According to a 2002 report by the American Journal of Public Health (PDF: 181KB/5 pages), LGBT homeless youth are significantly more vulnerable to physical victimization, substance abuse, and psychological problems.

There are thousands of Drews all across this country. When people say that they aren’t “bashing homosexuals, but…”, it’s important to note that many parents of homeless LGBT youth will probably say the same thing. You know, they just don’t “condone” their kids “lifestyle” — a lifestyle which can often be of their own parents’ making.

If you want to know why it is so fundamentally vital to change attitudes towards acceptance in this country, just look at the face of the next homeless teen you encounter.

    

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