Queer Streets - Blog Post #10

At the beginning of this video we learn that of the 20,000 homeless young people in NYC, 25-50% of them are LGBT. The stories of some of the homeless young people taking shelter at Sylvia’s Place were heart breaking. Kate, who seemed to be kind of the “mother” at Sylvia’s, was living in a shelter system for 3 years before she turned 18. That means that at 15 years old she was basically homeless, fending for herself. It’s amazing to me that she could keep a steady voice and even smile while telling the story of how when she found her way back to her mother’s house, her mother shut the door on her face when she saw it was Kate. Eventually her mother let her in and allowed her to stay the night, but called the police the next morning to have her taken back. I admire Kate for her strong will and ability to make something good out of a bad situation. It is clear that she has helped so many homeless young people by taking them under her wing because she can relate to them and their experiences.

Antoine is another individual who found refuge at Sylvia’s Place. Being diagnosed with OCD, ADHD, and bipolar disorder, he spent 17 days in a psych ward because he was suicidal. He mentioned that he doesn’t like being on medication because it “kills your personality.” It’s evident that Antoine suffers emotionally while trying to adjust to being openly gay. As Kate mentioned, getting a job when as a LGBT is often difficult because you are likely questioned about what gender you are, which frequently results in employers shying away from hiring you because they are uncomfortable with your gender and/or sexual orientation. Additionally, those who are hired commonly experience added pressure due to expectations regarding their job. This pressure can be too much to handle, like in Antoine’s case, where he got into a verbal argument with one of his co-workers and was fired.

This video was difficult to watch because it was evident that these young individuals (many of which were roughly my age) were determined to be successful and were quite ambitious. However, our rather homophobia society they were trying to prosper in was holding them back. It seems as though they felt that being openly LGBT, without being afraid to express themselves AND maintaining a successful career wasn’t possible. They felt pressured to either hide their sexual orientation in order to maintain a job, or deal with the discrimination they experienced while trying to find a job. Having both just didn’t seem realistic, and this constant feeling of oppression was tearing them down physically, mentally, and emotionally. Several of them once had promising futures, but dealing with constant oppression due to openly being LGBT had left them homeless and sometimes drug addicts. I was devastated to see at the end of the video that it was dedicated to Loubriel, a heroin addict the same age as me, who had been trying to go to rehab and make something of herself, but must have passed away soon after the video was filmed. These individuals have endured more hardship before the age of 25 than many of us will ever experience in our lives and most of it is due to our generally homophobic society that is frequently unwilling to accept them for who they are.