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No Help For Homeless Youth
No Help For Homeless Youth
By Glenn LeCarl
Could your support of HRC actually be harmful to homeless LGBT youth? With HRC’s October 16th announcement that it has begun the public phase of a capital campaign for its new $25 million headquarters, and as HRC solicits new members and continued support with direct mail this Autumn and pre-holiday season, I believe the moment apt to ask this and other hard questions.
From the outset let me acknowledge HRC’s valuable efforts on behalf of the LGBT community. In a number of instances and on some key fronts, HRC has worked effectively to help secure our rights and promote our interests. Yet it is the vital work HRC is not doing – on behalf of our homeless LGBT youth – to which I must invite the attention of community members, particularly those who are weighing membership in or support of HRC.
Not its beneficiaries, HRC’s success probably offers little comfort to those of our youths who have been forced from their homes or who have had to flee abuse because of their lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender identities. For them the street – dangerous and destructive – all too often becomes home. Though I cannot present a precise number, various studies estimate that LGBT youth comprise at least 20 to 40 percent of homeless youth. When you consider the enormous number of runaway and homeless youths living on the street – 1.3 million according to the National Runaway Switchboard – the crisis becomes apparent.
Sadly, their struggle only begins when they hit the street. Since many youth, runaway and homeless services are unwelcoming and often dangerous places for them, and since LGBT-friendly alternatives remain largely unavailable, many homeless LGBT youth turn to prostitution for survival, and to drugs and alcohol for escape. HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, violence, hopelessness and suicide ultimately destroy many lives.
Does HRC have sufficient resources, influence and position to provide the leadership needed to help alleviate this crisis? Your answer may lie only a few clicks away on the organization’s website, where HRC: reports securing $20 million toward the purchase and renovation of the new headquarters; reports raising, in combination with HRC Foundation, almost $19 million during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2001; claims more than 450,000 members; and touts its position as “America’s largest gay and lesbian organization,” and its role as “a national voice on gay and lesbian issues.” All HRC appears to lack in its ability to address this crisis is the will.
As the biggest gay rights organization it stands to reason that HRC’s efforts can have a disproportionately positive impact. Conversely, by its silence and inaction on an issue, HRC can effectively doom any meaningful advancement. Such has been the case where our homeless youth are concerned.
How many of the more than 90 news releases and action alerts issued by the organization over the past year and posted on its website regard homeless LGBT youth explicitly? You guessed it, none.
HRC has been vocal about a host of other matters though, including: marriage rights, Sept. 11th benefits, political endorsements, LGBT rights laws and anti-gay ballot initiatives, among others. HRC also lists HIV/AIDS, workplace equality, hate legislation, protecting LGBT families and lesbian health as the organization’s “focus issues.” As you might imagine, HRC spent considerable sums working to advance these issues. Isn’t the crisis of homelessness among LGBT youth at least equally worthy of HRC’s attention and largesse?
Since its inception three years ago, HRC’s Equality Fund Grant program has also been a bust for homeless LGBT youth. Of the fifty one grants totaling more than $236,000 awarded in fiscal years 2001 and 2002, not one has been expressly for their benefit. This fiscal year looks equally bleak – grants made thus far apparently snub them as well.
There are a handful of providers around the nation serving homeless LGBT youth – they do vital, life-saving work – and others are desperately needed. Regrettably, service providers are, for the most part, left to do as best they can at the local level with a crisis of national scale. Homeless LGBT youth clearly need a powerful advocate at the national level working vigorously to develop, in conjunction with those already in the field, a national strategy for addressing this crisis; and to engage Congress, government officials, foundations, youth and homeless services providers, the media, the public and our community in the ensuing effort.
Can you imagine the possibilities for our homeless youth if HRC stepped up to the plate? You might then consider making your membership and/or support conditioned upon how satisfactorily HRC does just that – and informing HRC of your intentions. Because if our leading national advocacy organization continues to say little and do less for these kids, isn’t it reasonable to suppose that your continued and knowing support could enable that neglect and, thereby, do harm?
Glenn LeCarl lives with his life-partner in Tallahassee, Florida. He welcomes comments at glennalecarl@aol.com