IS PROPOSITION N HOMOPHOBIC?
So, we all know the problem — like when we were growing up we never tried to run away from home because we were queer, but to reiterate:
“Data on homeless and runaway youth were collected through a consortium of agencies, including one that provides services to a high percentage of gay- lesbian-, and bisexual-identified youth. Gay and bisexual male youth appear to be at increased risk for both homelessness and suicide. Gay male street youth may have been forced out of their homes because of their sexual orientation, and are more likely to engage in survival sex (prostitution) than their nongay male counterparts. In one sample, 53% of gay-identified street youths had attempted suicide, compared with 32% of a cohort of street youths that included both gay and nongay youths. Prejudice, discrimination, and homophobia are still rampant in society today; these factors contribute to a multiplicity of problems that face the young person who is gay.” G. Kruks, pp. 515-8, Nov. 1991, Journal of Adolescent Health So here in San Francisco, the supposed Gay Safe Haven, Gavin Newsom wants to take away cash from single homeless folks; gee, who are most single homeless folks? By most estimates around 40% of homeless youths are queer (see here). So Gavin wants to take some money away from the queer homeless folks and replace it with that of services. Yet for most queer people life in a shelter can be a living hell: “Many gay homeless people, like T. Britton, feel that fighting the shelter system won’t do any good. He says, ‘If I had filed complaints I felt it just would’ve made matters worse for me. For good or ill I guess I generally “pass” as a straight person.’ The resulting repression multiplies the trauma and isolation people already feel when they are homeless exponentially.”
Other shelters run by Christians and other religious charities teach rampant homophobic theology in exchange for a warm place to sleep. Gavin cites the success of such places as New York city where former Mayor Guiliani invoked similar Care Not Cash proposals as remedies for homelessness. Yet, even the New York Times has faulted such policies as lacking the will to protect LGBTQ homeless folks (here).
The sad equation is that this Proposition N, the Care Not Cash initiative, will take away the money awarded via General Assistance to homeless single people (all homeless queers are single in the state of California) and replace those protections with promises of shelter and support. Yet, it has been established that queer folk do not go to shelters due to rampant homophobia, thus even more vulnerable members of the queer community will be at risk as runaway queer youths, young adults and others turn to street prostitution (survival sex), and other dangerous routes of survival in the streets.
We must organize to defeat Prop. N. It is Homophobic and anti-Gay.
Get involved here
Michael Salim McCarron