{"id":3229,"date":"2012-04-08T18:34:12","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T01:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardlynormal.com\/blog\/?p=2005"},"modified":"2022-10-09T08:09:35","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T12:09:35","slug":"transgender-homelessness-and-my-visit-with-trans-thrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/transgender-homelessness-and-my-visit-with-trans-thrive\/","title":{"rendered":"Transgender Homelessness and My Visit with TRANS: THRIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cI don\u2019t care who you worship or what you believe. I don\u2019t care who you sleep with. If you are helping hurting people, you\u2019re my friend and I will support you\u201d. ~ Mark Horvath<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Homelessness is a critical issue for transgender people, with one in five having experienced homelessness at some time in their lives because of discrimination and family rejection. As a result, an estimated 20-40% of the more than 1.6 million homeless youth in the United States are LGBT. Unfortunately, transgender people facing homelessness also face discrimination from agencies that should be helping them, with nearly one in three (29%) reporting being turned away from a shelter due to their transgender status.<\/p>\n

As many of you know I love and support any group of people that are discriminated against and that are not given the same opportunities the rest of us take for granted. When I started to work with homeless people, and really started to research homelessness, my heart just broke for our LGBT friends. As a Christian, I blogged about why I support gay rights a few times [ My new gay friend<\/a> and Why I Support Gay Rights<\/a>]. Too me, it’s a human rights issue. I get so mad when I hear how many of our LGBT friends are treated just because they are trying to be themselves! We are all HUMAN and we should treat all other humans with respect. Sadly, that is not the case. More often than not a transgender person is forced into sex work as the only means to survive. Often that leads to jail, which leads to homelessness. Once homeless, LGBT are discriminated by other homeless people and staff at homeless shelters.<\/p>\n

This past week I was honored to be asked to speak at TRANS: THRIVE<\/a>. I didn’t know I was to speak until I arrived and Erin introduced me to a room of maybe 20 new transgender friends. Being candid, I didn’t know what to say. There is no way I could even fathom the pain and suffering each one of my new friends experiences on a daily basis. I said a few words of why I was there, and explained my work. I then asked for the room to teach me about transgender homelessness.<\/p>\n

What happened next was gorgeous. I mean, I think it’s gorgeous when any group of people take off the masks and become intentionally vulnerable. The stories I heard that day forever changed me. I knew of the discrimination, but this was my first time listening to people share how they were abused and what they had to do everyday\u00a0 to survive.<\/p>\n

The following interview<\/a> is with Nikki \u201cTita Aida\u201d Calma<\/a>, Program Supervisor:<\/p>\n

The following interview is with Erin Armstrong<\/a>. Erin is the program coordinator for TRANS: THRIVE and also video blogs under the name Grishno<\/a>. I have huge crazy respect for Erin. It’s not easy video blogging period, but Erin has decided to use YouTube as an activist tool somewhat like what I do to fight homelessness.<\/p>\n