Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...‘These kids are invisible’: An LGBT youth shelter in words and pictures
I was going to ask about Ali Forney [the city’s other main LGBT youth homeless shelter and services center]. Do you guys work with them?
We try to. They are a great deal more bureaucratic than we are.
Ali Forney is really strict about curfews, about being out at night – like I think Bella got kicked out for missing two days. We do have a curfew and you can get in trouble for missing it, but we don’t kick people out, not very easily.
We have some rules you cannot violate, like no violence. You can’t burn the place down. You can’t use drugs or alcohol in this building or anywhere on the block.
But even so, we don’t kick you out. We may send you to rehab, and then you can come back when you’ve finished rehab. It’s a different approach. And also we’re the only people who take people on a walk-in basis.
Carolyn and Bella approach. They’re ready to leave to pick up Bella’s stuff, but Carolyn wants that liability release, which Kate without blinking signs and passes to her.
So you guys are open from 6 p.m. until 8 a.m. What do the kids do during the day?
Well, some of them work, some of them go to school. We have folks who are both GED and high school students.
And, like, Jabed over there is in Queensborough Community College. And then we have folks like Angel who’s not here because he’s at work. He’s a busboy at Applebee’s. He goes all the way to Staten Island from here. But he can’t get promoted to waiter because he doesn’t read and write very well, so we’re working with him on that.
But they all leave. Nobody stays here during the day.
You can’t, because this space becomes a food pantry from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and we come back in at 6 and stay until 8. This is the most overused space around. Even the roof of this building is a garden where we grow vegetables, which we then eat.
And the thing is we also have a drop-in program here, so not all the people in this room right now live here. From 6 p.m. to 10:30, any queer youth who wants to come and participate in our services or eat or whatever is welcome to do so, so we often feed like 45 kids a night.
What we find is like a third to half of our drop-in clients are transgender women, a lot of them involved in sex work. They’re drop in clients because they don’t stay in shelters. They come in and they shower and they eat, and then they go out at night to make money doing sex work.
A volunteer approaches and asks about donating clothing, and whether there are any particular standards for what can and can’t be given: Are socks okay? “Do we look like we have standards?” Kate asks. “If they’re usable, it’s fine. And socks are a precious commodity.”
Next page: ‘Covenant House kids attacked one of our trans girls.’
i would like to take in the kids who r homeless because they r gay. i am gay but when i told my parents they accepted me and they told me they will always love me no matter wat i am. i feel sorry for these kids and it makes me want to cry!!!!
I appreciate your comments on not wanting to be involved with religous groups. I was raised in a fundamental type church that seperated me from my family for decades. I know the damage they can do to the average LGBT child (person) however please understand that according to this hart breaking article it is MCC Metropolitan Community Church
founded by the GAY REV Troy Perry. I have met him on a number of occations, and use to attend his first church in L.A
when I lived in California.
This is not your run of the mill evangelical type church. This was the first church that was founded for gays primarily. I remember how nice it was to be able to go some where and be a part of something that was not a bar or park or a bath to meet other gay folks. The message was and still is very positive and very embelishing to the gay community and their needs.
This is the last place that would do anything to harm the community.
My point is if you can donate to this so needed cause, please do so and know that any item or money you donate will make life a little bit more tolarable in a world that is still so crule in many ways.
In this case I deeply hope you reconsider.
You besurprised what org. support & don’t support, in some way gay org.As Salvation army doesn’t.I sure most don’t know this.Is as some who work there.But some still help reguardless of orders of the ignoranting laws.
Hubs has like 50 pairs of size 13 mens shoes, so some of those are going. Some other stuff, if I can find anything useful in the garage.
The ONLY reason I’m giving is because these kids are working and in school.
Gay, straight, or whatever…I have no deep abiding need to help people just sitting on their butts whining.
I agree with brad – no way i would ever consider giving money to an organization affiliated with “god” or “jesus” regardless of who they are trying to help. They do too much damage in the process by spreading their religious ideology to others like a disease. No money from me – I only donate to secular organizations.
I’m am almost 30 now, but I was homeless when I was 19 because of family issues. I cried so much reading this article. Luckily, do to my own strength and a local church that helped me, I have turned my life around. I finished community college, now have an AA degree in graphic design, my own apartment, and a wonderful boyfriend. I will be sending a donation to help out as much as I can for the next person who needs it.
Thank you for this story. It makes me want to go right there and help raise money. If I’d come out as trans as a youth, this could easily have been me.
Sonam Ben
We’re getting involved and we have no intent on pushing religion. This isn’t a faith issue, it is a humanity issue. We’re shipping out 500 toothbrushes today. More support will follow.
Archbishop Simpson
Benedictine Order of St. John the Beloved
Brad, and others in the queer community who share his view ~
Your willingness to help the kids at Homeless Youth Services and Sylvia’s Place is admirable. And, the aversion you express toward MCCNY and all things god/faith-related is an understandable one for anyone in the queer community who has faced the kind of persecution we have from religious folk.
However, the reality on the ground here in New York City, and frankly around the globe, is that mainstream (straight) society doesn’t care about these kids (as this article points out) and the non-faith-based queer community isn’t doing much of anything to address their considerable needs. The additional reality is that it’s the queer people who attend MCCNY (like Lucky, like me) and our allies – both queer and straight, people of faith and atheists, agnostics and secular humanists – that are making a difference in these kids’ lives through the valuable work that Homeless Youth Services does.
No one at MCCNY proselytizes these kids. Ever. Instead, the services there provide them food, clothing, shelter and refuge from a world that’s largely hostile to them.
Brad, you and others, might also be interested to know that one of the biggest barriers we face to fund-raising is the anti-faith sentiments of the queer community. I hope you won’t let that stand in the way of helping these kids.
Peace,
~ Jessie
The book “Shelter” can also be obtained by calling MCCNY at 212-629-7440… 100% of the proceeds go directly to MCCNY Homeless Youth Services to benefit our shelter program.
I would have to disagree with that comment Mike in Boston: If you want to help someone why do you need to acknowledge GOD? Im an atheist and found that the religious bible thumpers have ruined the whole bunch and left an awful nasty taste in mouth. Religion needs to get pushed back into the closet and not stop telling people how to live. That goes for Catholic/Muslim/Evangelical….etc
Great story!
These are our kids people and why every successful gay man or lesbian out there isn’t donating is beyond me.
Why are shelters like “Sylvia’s Place” struggling?
Even though I don’t have any money, I’m making a donation now. I hope everyone else who has read the article does the same.
Brad, although I’m an agnostic who has also been “burned” by religious folks, I’m not going to punish these kids in need.
MCC is one of the most liberal, gay-friendly churches out there. You should read a bit more about them.
My rule is, if the work they are doing is good, and no one else is doing it, I don’t care if it’s a religious group or not.
Not person of faith is an enemy of the queer community, Brad, and it doesn’t help our cause (GLBT equality), nor does it help these kids in need, for us to continue to treat all people of faith as the enemy.
So, go ahead and help these kids anyway, regardless of the group doing the helping. You can even include a note with your donation, saying it is coming from someone who is not a person of faith, but that you still understand the work they are doing is good.
Oh Dear!
I want to help these kids, I want to help the TG people find shoes to fit. I want to ship a printer all the way from Canada.
Here is the problem, when I google “MCCNY”, I see links that say “reconnect with God ” and “join a community of faith”. These links provide more than enough evidence to me that my donations are going the wrong way.
Please find a way to keep God and Faith out of it and the international queer community will give.
I have been hurt way too many times by those of faith to give to an organization who promotes it.
Good luck to you, I want to give but will not support any organization based in faith.
I just can’t give to LGBT’s with “Faith” on their side and I feel bad, I want to help those kids.
Be good, I will help you when religion is not part of the equation.
Wow, that was a powerful story…I had to hold back tears. The youth of today need that kind of love and support from all adults…I am just speechless to think of anything else to say.