There is a segment of our population that is so despised their own families will reject them.
Who are these deemed to be so hated by not only society but their own families? LGBT's.
For youth it can be heartbreaking and at times deadly because not only have their families rejected them but they have not developed the social network to ease the vagaries of an economic system designed to benefit families.
Fact 1) About 40 percent of the homeless youth in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
Fact 2) One in four teens rejected by their families becomes homeless.
Fact 3) Parents who identify as strongly religious are three times more likely to reject their children.
The words of Carl Siciliano are quite accurate because there are those that this society has decided are not deserving of support.
Carl is the founder of the Ali Forney Center a homeless shelter for LGBT youth-our most vulnerable children.
The holiday season frightens me. It is the time of year our homeless kids are most likely to attempt suicide. Kids who have been cast out of their homes suffer badly during a season that celebrates and idealizes family togetherness.
Yesterday I met with a group of kids at our drop-in center in Chelsea. They were all out in the cold at night, waiting for beds to open up in our shelters. One boy, who is 16 years old, told me how everything went bad for him when he was eleven. His father demanded to know if he was gay and when the boy was honest, his father refused to speak to him for three years. His mother tells him that he is a mistake and that she wishes she never had him. He has been running away repeatedly since then. There is nothing to celebrate at his home. I had a hard time sleeping last night, wondering what he had suffered.
What a sick, toxic force homophobia is in our society, destroying homes, making parents turn on their own children. Tens of thousands of teens in our country have been forced out of their homes. An LGBT teen is eight times more likely to suffer homelessness than a straight teen. The religious and political leaders who promote homophobia are causing terrible human suffering. They lie when they say they are promoting family values.
The Ali Forney Center is in need of donations so please give to support children the world has forgotten.