advertisement
advertisement
|
By Beth Kling
Friday, January 13, 2006
After hearing about the plight of local homeless LGBT youths from the Rev.
Pat Bumgardner during a Bible study class at Metropolitan Community Church of
New York, Peggy Borgstede and her partner Kathy Green decided to do something
about the problem. They have joined Dr. Wilhelmina Perry of Riverside Church’s
Maranatha group and Bumgardner in forming the Greater New York Task Force for
Homeless LGBT Youth.
The group has enlisted five New York City churches to open their doors overnight
to homeless LGBT youths. The task force has also mobilized other churches, community
organizations and faith groups to donate money, volunteers, food and resources
to operate these shelters.
Three years ago, MCCNY took action to address this problem, opening Sylvia’s
Place, an emergency shelter for six homeless LGBT young people every night.
“MCC was the only church willing to do this,” Borgstede said, “and
Sylvia’s Place is the only emergency shelter available for LGBT homeless
kids in New York City.” Ali Forney Center and Green Chimneys also serve
the LGBT homeless youth population, but they provide transitional housing and
other programming, not last-minute emergency beds for the night, a crucial need
in these cold winter months.
Sylvia’s Place will act as the organization’s hub, screening and
referring clients and ensuring that the churches have the necessary support
and training they need to function optimally, said Kate Barnhart, director of
Sylvia’s Place. The five participating churches—from Lutheran, Methodist
and Episcopal traditions, as well as a gay Catholic group—will shelter
clients who have stayed at Sylvia’s Place in the past, which will help
MCCNY expand its outreach to homeless LGBT youths off the streets.
Starting January 16, the churches will alternate making their facilities available
to six queer young people for a week at a time, doubling the number Sylvia’s
Place currently serves. “There’s a whole population of chronically
homeless gay kids,” explains Barnhart, who said some return to Sylvia’s
Place while enduring the long wait for supportive housing.
“The truth is if every church in New York City just took responsibility
for six kids, we could make a big dent in the homeless youth population,”
Bumgardner said.
“We couldn’t believe what was happening on the streets of New
York,” said Borgstede, of Westchester, after learning about the numbers
of homeless LGBT youth. On any given night, Bumgardner said, anywhere from 8,000
to 30,000 young people are on the streets, and a significant number of these
kids—as high as 50 percent by some estimates—are queer or gender-variant.
The reason so many are LGBT is pretty obvious, Bumgardner explains, “considering
what queer kids suffer in their home environments and at school.”
Armed with a list of gay-friendly churches compiled by Empire State Pride
Agenda, the task force called its first meeting to address the issue in September
and got representatives from more than 40 churches.
“Our message was basically, ‘You helped cause the problem, so
you’re responsible to open your doors to these young people,’”
Borgstede explained, referring to the role churches have traditionally played
in creating a homophobic culture that harms many LGBT young people, leading
to abuse, addiction and homelessness.
“I think in households or families where faith plays a role, mainline
churches are very detrimental to the health and well-being of queer youth,”
adds Bumgardner. “I hold the church responsible for a lot of queer phobia
and I want to hold its feet to the fire around repentance and reforming.”
The task force is continuing to recruit church and community organizations
with the hope that more shelter space can be made available to LGBT homeless
youth beyond the winter months. Riverside Church’s Sharing Fund has awarded
a $5,000 grant toward materials; Soulforce, a group advocating spiritual freedom
for LGBTs, is mobilizing to find more volunteers, and The River Fund, a hunger
relief program for HIV/AIDS and homeless people, is donating food for the shelters.
“Once the program got started, more people have shown a willingness
to be involved,” said Perry, who is working with Bailey House to develop
training materials for the program. “This has really energized a part
of the gay community, as well as gay-friendly churches.”
Any churches, community organizations or individuals interested
in participating in Greater New York Task Force for Homeless LGBT Youth should
contact Peggy Borgstede at 917-847-6592 or MBorgstede@aol.com or Mina Perry
at minawperry@rcn.com.
|
