On the Street, Without a Safety Net: LGBT Youth Homelessness

Bishop Gene Robinson: "I'm Gene Robinson, and I'm the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire and a Visiting Senior Fellow here at the Center for American Progress. As a gay man myself, I am so concerned about homelessness among so many of our gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered young people who find themselves, frankly, with no safe place to go."

Sierra Webster, DC youth: "When I first was on the streets, it was bad. It was nice weather at the time, so it wasn't like cold, cold, but it was cold some days."

Jeff Krehely, CAP Director of LGBT Research: "The Center for American Progress recently completed a report on LGBT youth homelessness. And we found that a disproportionate number of homeless youth are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender."

Nico Quintana, report author: "Having been homeless when I was young, and then being able to go to college and being able to have a career, doesn't happen very often. And statistically, I really shouldn't be sitting here right now."

Krehely: "Although LGBT youth make up only about 4 percent of the overall population, they make up about 30 percent of the youth homelessness population."

Webster: "When I was out there, I was a boy, a feminine boy. I always looked like I had a girl's face."

Leandra Gilliam, Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League health program manager: "More lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth are coming out younger and younger every day."

Krehely: "Families sometimes react very poorly. There could be violence at home around this. And youth leave and end up on the streets."

Webster: "My grandma asked me to leave because, my grandmother said that, I can be me, but I couldn't dress up, I couldn't be who I wanted to be. So, basically, she asked me to deny who I was."

Gilliam: "The right of self determination, of identity, of gender, that is very important. But most of the families that these young people come from impact their outcome and how they feel about themselves, their self worth."

Quintana: "Family is the first safety net for young people in this country. And the second safety net is our child welfare system, and schools, also. And when none of those safety nets function properly in the case of gay and transgender homeless youth, we have a big crisis."

Webster: "I stayed, I'd stay back where I used to live at. It was tore down, the building was tore down, so basically I was on the streets 3rd and K. I just stayed out there, walking around back and forth, going to school."

Krehely: "LGBT homeless youth in school settings face verbal, physical harassment from their peers, face administrators and teachers who just don't know how to deal with LGBT issues."

Gilliam: "I think that's why a lot of the youth, they don't want to finish school, they don't want to continue on with their education, because they don't think like they're deserving of it."

Quintana: "Regional studies have found that LGBT homeless youth have catastrophic dropout rates."

Webster: "I made sure that no matter what, if I was going to be out on the streets, I was going to graduate. I saw a lot of people who came from the same situation I was in, come out in the streets. I see a lot of kids now going on the streets, prostituting because they don't have a home.

Krehely: "There are currently no federal programs that target LGBT homeless youth, so we don't see any dedicated money going to that population. We don't see any programs specifically targeting them."

Gilliam: "Even when I look into resources for young people who do need housing, who are identifying as lesbian or gay, bisexual or transgender, and when you call certain places and you say that, that whole willingness to provide services changes."

Webster: "We're here, we're a part of here, we're still standing here. We're left out in the cold when everybody else is in their warm homes, we're out here sleeping, we're out here prostituting to survive."

Quintana: "These are kids. These are children, young people who are being rejected by their families, and then by their schools, and then by the systems that are supposed to be there to protect them."

Webster: "Whatever happened to me then, out there, is between me and God. Nobody else."

Bishop Gene Robinson: "The fact of the matter is, homelessness among out gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth is a huge problem here in America. If you want to find ways of empowering yourself to do something about homelessness among LGBT youth, please go to the website and read out report, and let's all work together to end this terrible, terrible problem."