A few days ago, fellow QueerSighted blogger Jerry Weinstein referenced the plight (and horrible epidemic) of LGBT homeless youth. The subject deserves a bit more attention and our community--particularly the New York City queer community-- deserves a fair amount of scolding.

Just how self-serving, self-indulgent and socially and politically apathetic is the nation's largest and wealthiest gay community? The epidemic of homeless queer youth in the nation and in New York City in particular is in fact spiraling out of control and is likely the most overlooked and outright ignored crisis within the gay community. Kudos to The New York Times for covering this issue periodically over the past few years--but with little to no response from the gay community or the city government.

In fact, the New York City Department of Health officially estimates that there may be as many 8,400 homeless queer youth roaming our streets. Fingers have been pointed at the city and the city has responded by allocating $1.2 million to address the problem. But as Queerty recently pointed out there are only about 65 beds now available in the city to address this problem thanks to a handful of very small and barely funded operations: Sylvia's Place, The Ali Forney Center, Green Chimneys and Carmen's Place. Furthermore as well-intentioned as they are, some of these facilities are provided by churches which may not be an attractive option for children who have been banished by church-going parents.



According to a recent report from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Policy Institute and the National Coalition for the Homeless, up to 42 percent of the nation's 575,000 to 1.6 million runaway teens identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). According to one source as many as 25 percent of these kids were simply thrown into the streets by their parents who condemned their own children as ungodly abominations.

But this is hardly a new problem and should come as a surprise to no one. Banished and homeless gay teens have been fueling the sex business on street corners for as long as anyone can remember. And there have certainly been enough movies on this subject. The "surprise" is the lack of will and interest in the gay community to muster its considerable resources to publicize and provide safe havens for these kids.

What in the name of Zeus is the matter with us? Our own queer City Council Speaker Christine Quinn was recently quoted as saying,"Now that we have a report that sadly documents how big a problem the issue of homelessness among young LGBT people is...it will make it much more difficult for government to ignore or walk away from that problem."

Sure. As I said, this problem is only news to the deaf, dumb and blind. But I doubt a "report" will make a difference and Christine Quinn's polite comment is way too little and way too late for the thousands of kids we've allowed to suffer, sicken and die over the past decades from abandoment, abuse, AIDS and exposure..

While Quinn and most of our other gay leaders remain polite, conservatively dressed and utterly useless on this subject, we can make a difference.

Click on any one of the centers mentioned above and make a donation now and then on a regular basis.

Shame on us. You can't blame the city, state or federal government for this travesty. We can only blame ourselves. This abomination may be news to them, but you damn well know that it isn't news to us.

Maybe we could spend less time saving ourselves from dry hair, love handles and last year's Prada and more time saving some queer kids.