NPR recently covered the issue of gay teens and homelessness in New York City, and the failure of social services in a state that has recently passed gay marriage.
Young, Gay And Homeless: Fighting For Resources
by MARGOT ADLER
There are only 250 beds for 3,800 homeless kids in New York City; waiting lists are huge. Facing a $10 billion deficit, Gov. Andrew Cuomo made compromises with the New York state Legislature. Budget cuts would have taken 100 of those beds away. The city council restored monies cut from both the city and state budgets, so no beds have been cut. A spokesperson said Cuomo asked all local governments to take more responsibility for their budgets by eliminating waste and prioritizing vital programs.
When you view the gay lobby, like any other lobby, they begin to look like a fat-cat special interest. They influence politicians by filling up the campaign coffers and not on progressive ideals.
In Massachusetts, there has been an initial study on homeless gay teens. There are striking differences between, straight homeless teens who are more likely to be accompanies by at least one parent, and teens who identify themselves as gay who are homeless on their own.
The initial sample of 6,653 students was narrowed to 6,317 who gave full information on their sexual orientation and homelessness status. Less than 5 percent of students overall identified themselves as GLB, yet they accounted for 19 percent of those who identified themselves as homeless.Pretty striking isn't it.
Everyone talks about gay couples adopting, but getting anyone gay or straight to foster cute babies and children under ten is easy. Teenagers in need of services is a big problem. I hope the study can go further and see what types of homes these teens grew up in before becoming homeless. Are they originally from out of state, like in the NPR piece, and came to Massachusetts? Did they leave homes that had both their biological parents, single parent led homes, or homes with a step-parent or boyfriend residing?
The vast majority of homeless gay teens are homeless because their biological parents kicked them out for being gay. The research is already there, you are obviously either too lazy to find it or just don't want to.
ReplyDeleteNeither the NPR or Massachusetts study cited a reason, in fact the NPR article didn't want to make that conclusion.
ReplyDeleteHere is a publication from Columbia dating from September 2009, on the causes of teen homelessness. It divides the two between, those with their parents and those who are not. While there is a higher association identifying one as gay, a precursor isn't being gay but mental illness.
ReplyDelete"While runaway and homeless experiences influence mental health status, youth who experience homelessness exhibit more behavioral problems prior to their runaway or homeless experiences compared with youth without runaway or homeless episodes,"
One problem that I experienced in my volunteering, is that teens will run even if in a safe foster home. In Massachusetts we can't restrain or detain, so they can just walk off. It's scary to see these teens place themselves in dangerous situations, and if caught out of state, they get sent back to Massachusetts. So minors who travel to New York City, have trouble just walking into a state agency, because they will be transport back home.
And just because you don't like your parents' rules, such as who are your friends, having a curfew, or their religious or politic views doesn't entitle a teen to a foster home. You'll be sent back home. In fact the agency will support the parents doing their job.
If it really was just your parents not liking the fact your gay, all that teen as to do in Massachusetts is tell his/her guidance councilor and contact DCF in be placed in a foster home, in which a teen can stay until they're 21 if in school or working. They might be surprised though, that your new foster parents doesn't want you out all night and having sex. In fact the rules in a foster/group home, maybe more strict. Which in fact some foster kids love, because it shows that their foster parents care enough about them to keep them safe.
Here is another publication, from May 2006 on Homeless Youth (ages 16-24), while citing family dysfunction/breakdown/drug use and Of homeless young people, 40–60 percent experience physical abuse, and 17–35 percent experience sexual abuse.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/youth.pdf
In all seriousness, youth homelessness isn't about parents who didn't like their gay child. Instead these teens, as children have been sexually abused and as run-aways have the great potential of being sexually exploitative.
ReplyDelete"A 2002 report on sexual abuse among adolescent runaways, prepared for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that: 21-40% of homeless youth had been sexually abused compared to 1-3% of the general youth population: 1 in 3 runaways have been forced to perform a sexual act against their will; a quarter of youth who have run away had parents or caretakers who requested sexual activity and 32% had been victims of sexual assault; and runaway youth are 4 to 8 times more likely to have been sexually abused than youth in the general population, and more sexually assaulted or exploited on the streets."
"The combination of early emotional and psychological problems that result from sexual abuse and the high-risk environment in which street youth interact results in an increased risk for sexual victimization.7 Thirty percent of shelter youth and 70% of street youth are victims of commercial sexual exploitation.8 Over 162,000 homeless youth are estimated to be victims of commercial sexual exploitation in the US.9"
Perhaps if Personal Failure isn't too busy, she might produce some studies of her own. I'd love to see her research; plus, it would be an act of good will and fair-mindedness, after the cheap shot leveled at Renee.
ReplyDeleteDofE, I'm doing searches 'causes of teen homelessness', basing it off government publications but I've reading up on recent news articles in regards of the recession.
ReplyDeleteRenee, you walk the walk, not just talk the talk. :)
ReplyDeleteI suspect causes of teen homelessness are going to vary based on the situation. If you want to know why so many gay teens are homeless a search specific to that would probably be the most fruitful.
ReplyDeleteIf you type "homeless gay" google has a suggestion for "homeless gay youth statistics." You'll get a page full of results.
Here's some highlights with citations from the first result:
"26% of gay and lesbian youth are forced to leave home because of conflicts over their sexual orientation. (1)"
"In a study of male teenagers self-described as gay or bisexual, 27% moved away from home because of conflict with family members over sexual orientation. Almost half had run away from home at least once. (2)"
"In a study of 194 gay and lesbian youth, 25% were verbally abused by parents, and nearly 10% dealt with threatened or actual violence. (3)"
(1)U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide: Gay Male and Lesbian Youth Suicide.” (1989)
(2)Remafedi, Gary. (1987). "Male Homosexuality: The Adolescent's Perspective." Pediatrics, Issue 79. pp. 326-337.
(3)Anthony D'Augelli, unpublished study, 1997. Studied 194 lesbian, gay and bisexual youth aged 14 to 21 attending social and support groups in fourteen metropolitan areas.
Here's an abstract from a paper on the broader subject of the effect of hostile (homophobic) environments on gay youth:
A common theme identified in empirical studies and clinical reports of lesbian, gay male, and bisexual youths is the chronic stress that is created by the verbal and physical abuse they receive from peers and adults. This article reviews the verbal and physical abuse that threatens the well-being and physical survival of lesbian, gay male, and bisexual youths. This response to gay male, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents by significant others in their environment is often associated with several problematic outcomes, including school-related problems, running away from home, conflict with the law, substance abuse, prostitution, and suicide. Although the causal link between these stressors and outcomes has not been scientifically established, there is suggestive evidence that these outcomes are consequences of verbal and physical harassment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Verbal and physical abuse as stressors in the lives of lesbian, gay male, and bisexual youths: Associations with school problems, running away, substance abuse, prostitution, and suicide.
Savin-Williams, Ritch C.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 62(2), Apr 1994
Anyway, this is some information I found with just a few minutes of searching. I hope it is helpful to the discussion.
Thanks li13,
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the a number around 25% involved conflict over their orientation?
That would seem to run counter to PF's assertion that it was a vast majority...
@On Lawn:
ReplyDeleteSince that's the number for gay youth in general (not homeless gay youth) we can't tell. It would depend on the percentage of all gay youth that are homeless vs. the percentage that were homeless due to conflict over orientation. With numbers given it seems within the realm of possibility, but we'd need more specific data.
Also, being "forced to leave home" doesn't necessarily mean homelessness (moving in with a relative or a foster home would also fall under the category, among other things).
Homelessness would be subsumed in this category, though, and I'd suspect it was a pretty large category.
I do think it's fair to say that this provides some strong evidence that conflict over orientation seems to be a strong driver of homelessness in gay youth.
Of course, this doesn't exclude Renee's discussion of abuse as a driver of teen homelessness in general. Both categories no doubt are significant causes of homelessness in gay youth. There may also be substantial overlap, as gay youth are disproportionately subjected to abuse (sexual & physical).
And, of course, that raises still more potential for overlap and conflation, as conflict over orientation can drive abuse.
(Not citing anymore stats this time, but http://www.pflagphoenix.org/education/youth_stats.html is a good source for articles on the subject).
I tracked down the orginal article for the statistic in question if anyone's interested.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it's a dept. of health review article so it just leads to more sources you'd have to track down if you really wanted methodology details. I love statistics. :)
http://www.ncmhjj.com/resource_kit/pdfs/Special%20Issues/References/GayMaleLesSuic.pdf
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThank you, li13
ReplyDeleteI'm struggling with this right now, because teens leave the home due to real trauma, as cited in my previous posting I don't want to conclude that physical/emotional/sexual abuse results in a child identifying themselves as gay.
Right now I believe individuals are gay for multiple reasons, clearly one can be born that one. I've know people who are truly gay with no abuse, and others who were abused who did 'come out' only to be straight. In fact she claimed she couldn't return home, because she was gay. In retrospect, it felt more of a good reason on why she didn't want to go back home and stay with her roommate/girlfriend.
And this is my greatest concern with gay advocates, why aren't they advocating for moms and dads to love their gay children? And instead favor to push for gay marriage? They have their points, but in the wrong area of how to create better public policy or change culture.
Hey Renee, Can I first say how surprised and pleased I was by your comment? I think I'm too used to people on the internet not actually bothering to listen to each other. It's amazingly refreshing to find someone actually trying to communicate and have a discussion. Sorry in advance if I write a book back at you.
ReplyDeleteI've struggled with how to word this because I find myself confused by your last question and I want to make sure that we're both talking on the same plane.
So let me first clarify where I'm coming at this from. What I initially thought you were saying was that
a) Gay advocates are not currently advocating for parents to be loving and accepting of their gay children
b) Gay advocates can advocate for either parental love or gay marriage but not both
and/or c) advocating for gay marriage is gay advocate's attempt to deal with issues like homelessness(?).
When I thought about it some more I don't think this is actually what you were getting at but just to address the points: I think it is not a stretch to say that gay advocates (which I am interpreting to mean 'people who actively speak out for gay rights and may or may not be gay') generally support any kind of increased acceptance of gay people and gay rights/equality. Also that they are not only capable of addressing multiple issues at once but, since they are not some sort of cohesive unit, they have multiple voices and goals.
My second interpretation, which I think is probably closer to what you meant, would be that gay advocates are directing their primary focus in the wrong direction (speaking out loudly for gay marriage when the welfare of gay children is more urgent.)
I kind of want to address two different things that came to my mind on that subject--sorry to ramble.
First--the idea that acceptance of gay children is the more important issue. Actually, I can agree with you on that. Children are precious, and should be protected above everything else, and parents turning on their children over this kind of issue breaks my heart. (I actually didn't know the statistics on homeless gay youth until I read your post.)
But I don't think this really is an either/or situation. First, I think that gay advocates can (and do) advocate for both issues. But I also think that they are both issues related to topics of cultural acceptance of gay people and gay equality and that *both* issues are hurting real people right now. I don't actually know your opinions on gay marriage and my own have certainly evolved with time but I hope we can both agree that the gay people in question, at least, feel that this is an injustice currently and actively being done to them. And I just don't think it's fair to tell people to only focus on the most pressing issues of social injustice.
I don't know, it reminds me of discussions of seen about women in other countries being so much worse of that American women shouldn't be fussing about their own rights.
There's *always* someone worse off but all pain matters, and really, ideally, we shouldn't have to have a waiting list. We should advocate for everything right now! :)
(Sorry, I think I'm getting a little silly, but it's late here.)
Anyway, second point and I'm almost done. I'm actually not convinced that gay marriage really is such a separate issue from parents loving their gay children.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you are familiar with the idea of rape culture? It is essentially the idea that we live in a culture that in a lot of subtle and sometimes subconscious ways is more supportive of rapists than rape victims and that these signals have a net affect of increasing sexual violence. I think this idea can be applied to gay issues as well. I think our culture still sends a lot of signals that reinforce intolerance and homophobia and that it's something of a feedback loop. Just an example of how this kind of atmosphere might manifest in our culture--there was a statistic in one of those articles that teenagers (both straight and gay) overwhelmingly listed being labeled "gay" as the worst bullying in schools.
Little pieces of inequality and lack of acceptance add up, and I think not allowing equal marriage rights contributes to a culture that views gay people as unequal.
Maybe gay marriage can't solve gay homelessness but the cultural message of acceptance it would send might help at least a little. It's hard to see how it could hurt.
Okay. That's it from me; I'll hop of my soapbox now. 'night!
li13, That's why people who personally know me, know I'm not a bigot, still are sympathetic and agree with gay marriage. Their agreement is not because they want to devalue marriage or fatherless, but to acknowledge that they themselves are not homophobic.
ReplyDeleteCan one disagree with gay marriage and not be seen as a bigot?
Again thank you so much for commenting, I really appreciate it.
Here is a very common and recent example that it is perfectly acceptable to call someone gay as a slur and desensitize rape....
ReplyDeletehttp://failbook.failblog.org/2011/11/13/funny-facebook-fails-frape-girls-vs-boys/
I had to search for the definition of 'frape'.
"
The act of changing all the details on someones facebook page when they leave it open and vulnerable- Personal details, relationship status, gender, sexuality, political views etc."