LGBT Youth: An Epidemic of Homelessness

Last Tuesday I talked about the high percentage of GLBTQ young people in the runaway and homeless youth population. Continuing with this theme, I thought I’d draw your attention to a report issued by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in collaboration with the National Coalition for the Homeless, titled Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: An Epidemic of Homelessness. You can find a link to this report in the Web Resources section of the InterNetwork for Youth.

One of the perspectives that I found interesting was a concern about the impact on LGBT homeless youth from the federal government’s increased funding for faith-based service providers. The report points out that the level of federal funding for youth homelessness has not increased, but the percent of faith-based organizations (FBO’s) receiving federal funding has; concluding that there is no increase to services, but there is a change in who provides services. The report wonders if the opposition of a number of FBO’s to legal and social equity for LGBT people will result in a decrease of safe and effective services for the 20-40% of the homeless youth population that identifies as GLBTQ. It is an interesting question worthy of consideration.

NOTE: “GLBTQ”, or Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning, is considered the more “inclusive” descriptor for sexual minority youth. “LGBT”, or Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender”, is the descriptor used in the report. These descriptors are used interchangeably in this blog entry.