There are a lot of subjects that need a little light shed on them (George, Dick, Iraq, Intelligence Agencies, Sexual Predators in Churches and Politics) but tonight I would like to reference a subject that is near to my heart and I hope to yours too. The National Lesbian and Gay Task Force in cooperation with the National Coalition for the Homeless have just published a report by Nicholas Ray entitled An Epidemic of Homelessness available for download in PDF format here, which analyze the epidemic proportions of homeless youth in America today. Of the estimated 1.6 million homeless youth each year, up to 40% of them identify as LGBT. Why this large a segment for our small segment of society? The answer is simply hate, bigotry, misunderstanding and religious bias. Many of today's gay youth when they either come out or are outed to their families are thrown away simply because they are gay. "Better to have no child than a Gay one", how can biological families be so cruel to their own members? I have yet to figure that out. In my own case, I was not thrown out but was severely castigated and as recorded in these pages suffered many difficult years of misunderstanding and pain because of the simple fact that I am Gay. There is also a good article on this subject at About.com entitled Saving Our GLBT Homeless which led me to the NLGTF/NCH report referenced above. In that article a shelter in New York named after a homeless youth murdered at age 22 by an unknown someone was spotlighted and you can read more about the Ali Forney Center which is doing tremendous work but is just barely making a scratch in New York much less the rest of the country. We need more places for our misunderstood youth to go so that they do not fall prey to those who would use their bodies or to the other epidemic out there so common to them, drug abuse. I can relate to their need for self medication as I wanted to change any and all of my feelings of inferiority and despair and fell into that trap myself. There are still times when the struggle to survive makes me want to go back to those days of oblivion. It is a shame that something that "can't be helped" ie nichevo in Russian, can cause so many families such heart ache through misunderstanding and/or religious BS or just plain simple hatred and bigotry towards homosexuality. Read up on the subject, volunteer or contribute to a center near you. If there is no place near you for this purpose, investigate the possibility of opening one in cooperation with your local LGBT center or other charitable organization. We must protect our youth or our country will not survive. (Of course if George sticks around much longer it may not survive anyway, but I digress). This is a serious problem that gets worse every day. How much of the money we have spent in Iraq could have been better used to house those homeless persons young or old, gay or straight, sane or crazy? How many lifes could have been saved if we did? How come George and Dick don't care? Do you care? I hope you do. I have two youth in my home that would be otherwise homeless, I can't afford it but I would rather see them safe than on the streets at the mercy(?) of the unsavory elements found there. I am doing my part, will you do what you can today?
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