A recent article by an openly lesbian Toronto police officer, Sgt. Judy Nosworthy, on 365gay.com about GLBTQ street and homeless youth struck a chord when I read it.
The issue of ‘what to do about our GLBTQ youth’ is an issue that has been bouncing around our communities for as long as I’ve been involved in community work and, 20-odd years later, the issue has not progressed beyond the asking of the question. Very little has been done to specifically address the issues and concerns - the cold realities - of GLBTQ street-involved and homeless youth, or any other generational demographic, for that matter.
This is often a particularly difficult population to reach. On my radio show, Speak Sebastian, a few months ago, I interviewed Dr. Sue McIntyre. She had recently completed a study of males in the sex trade, including street hustlers (Under the Radar). One of the findings – and a rather obvious one, in hindsight – is that members of this population tend to not approach the various social workers, agencies, and networks set up to deal with the issue…fear of being further outed, under-age concerns, or a misplaced sense of independence all contributed to this. The various agencies often had absolutely no idea how to reach the population either.
When I was coordinating Gay Lines Calgary (the precursor to GLCSA), we attempted to institute a low-level ‘outreach’ to street-involved gay youth. It had extremely limited success. Some of the boys showed up a couple of times and the only result was “Miss Piggy”, our coffee piggy-bank, was kidnapped and the five bucks in her taken. One of our regular drop-ins found her abandoned in Memorial Park and returned her to us. I thought it amusing (although very relieved to see our drag pig back) but also illuminative of just how much work we needed to do and the total lack of resources we had to do it. The ‘project’ didn’t go anywhere….
Other, and funded, agencies are often so overwhelmed with sheer numbers that they can’t even begin to focus specifically on a largely ‘invisible’ population. I sometimes suspect if GLBTQ youth were perceived in the same manner as, for instance, aboriginal youth, we would have programs coming out our ears!
As Sgt. Nosworthy points out in her 365gay.com article, GLBTQ youth are often denied service for being GLBTQ. A study released several years ago out of Toronto focused on the experience of GLBTQ youth in residential care. Many youth workers were unaware, but there was a high incidence of abuse and harassment of this demographic in residential care by other youth: Intimidation, bullying and harassment, verbal abuse, beatings, even rapes - the whole gamut. The study concluded that one of the least safe spaces for GLBTQ youth was in existing residential care.
Many outreach programs are religious-based (various churches, the Salvation Army, pastoral care). I commend the work done by such people, I honestly do. However, if a setting like The Cave, for instance, is being operated by an evangelical group with strong ties to anti-GLBTQ advocacy then just how ‘welcoming’ and ‘safe’ is that space for GLBTQ youth?
At the very least, there is a subtle feeling of not quite being ‘good enough’ due to their orientation or gender identity which is an issue, not necessarily the response of others to those identities.
Oh, you are welcome here…just don’t act out your
while all around them heterosexual youth are pairing off, dating, interacting as young males and young females do and that is, within reason, encouraged as it is seen as setting a model of mature interaction; preparing youth for relationships and ‘life.’ However, if two gay male youth or two lesbian youth do exactly the same thing, suddenly it’s about their homosexuality. I can’t even begin to imagine what trans-identified youth or gender queer youth must go through….
Sgt. Nosworthy comments, “We, the fabulously innovative, socially edge-of-the-wedge GLBT community need to step up to the plate and help our kids. We must compel our governments to provide funding for housing, education, health care and employment opportunities specifically for GLBT youth, just as the government has provided for other ethno-cultural youth. We must work with agencies within our towns and cities, such as the Police and the Children’s Aid, to ensure that there is sensitivity to the issues and appropriate response to the situations that our youth are likely to find themselves in.”
It is a challenge. At a meeting formed to brainstorm around how to revitalize the downtown core, and pass comment on a study the City of Calgary had done regarding the Beltline/Connaught/West Victoria neighbourhoods, I mentioned that at no time was the gay community consulted. It certainly wasn’t consulted about the “troublesome” phenomenon of young male prostitutes along the so-called Gay Stroll.
Two youth workers from one of the street-oriented agencies, both recently graduated female workers, turned around and huffily announced to me “but that isn’t a gay issue; it’s not about them being homosexual. Why would we consult the gay men’s community about it?”
They insisted it was an issue of disenfranchisement, of having a lack of skills…all the usual social work-y rationale. I agree, those rationale are a part of the equation, but to me the bottom line was, those boys, by and large, are “our” kids. True, not all hustlers identify as gay or even bisexual, but many do and are.
To my way of thinking, youth agencies first need to be talking to such youth to find out what their real needs are. The agencies also need to be talking to the GLBTQ community, specifically the gay and bisexual men’s community, about some of the intangibles around what it is to be gay in a predominately-heterosexual culture - especially when your parents, who are supposed to love you unconditionally, just kicked you out of the house for being a faggot.
Placing gay, lesbian, or trans-identified youth into a group home or shelter environment that does not acknowledge or respect them for being gay, lesbian, or trans-identified is setting those kids up for further abuse.
We need queer-specific shelters, staffed by trained GLBTQ youth workers who can more readily identify with the clientele.
There needs to be an environment where queer youth can see rainbow banners on the wall, access queer resources, know that a worker ‘gets it’ when the youth is heartbroken over breaking up with his boyfriend or her girlfriend.
Queer youth need help not only adjusting to being abandoned by their families of origin, learning skills on how to get and keep a job, paying rent, and being responsible. They need help in adjusting to being healthy, secure, gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, or transfolk. Queer youth need not only peer-support, but also queer elder support. The generations ahead of them can often serve as wonderful role models, but only if queer youth has legitimate and safe access to us.
Unfortunately, mention mentoring queer youth to most gay men over the age of 30 (and a few lesbians too) and they will blanch and start to stutter and stammer, “Gawd, no. People will think I am some sort of chickenhawk!”
Such reluctance cuts both ways, of course. As I skidded past 40-something, I became increasingly aware of Invisible Man Syndrome. This somewhat unsettling syndrome seems to affect individuals in their late teens and early-to-mid twenties when in the presence of someone over forty. They seem to have difficulty not only hearing what The Old Guy/Girl has said, but of even acknowledging his or her presence.
It is not a case of not hearing the older person very well, but rather of not hearing anything coming out of the person’s mouth at all; of carrying on as if nothing whatsoever was uttered. A side characteristic of this syndrome is The Mask wherein the person under forty fixes the person over forty with a blank, often vacuous, gaze as if totally uncomprehending of the simplest utterance, or not quite believing that anybody of such advanced age is even capable of speaking.
In my day (and if that doesn’t reveal my advanced age…), this was known as the Generation Gap. We wouldn’t trust anyone over thirty. So such miscommunication is a product of intergenerational separation: We simply don’t deal with each other on a regular basis and certainly rarely relate.
Having said that though, if our queer youth, and especially our homeless and at risk street queer youth, are going to ever get a leg up and survive, it is up to us as adults to reach out to them and keep reaching out so that the needed services and models are in place.
Stephen Lock is a long-time glbtq activist, Vice-President and Regional Co-Director for Egale Canada and also the producer and host of a semi-monthly glbtq radio show, Speak Sebastian, airing at 9pm on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month on CJSW FM 90.9 (www.cjsw.com).