A new study confirms that approximately four in ten homeless youth and teens are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, and more than 40% of those ran away from home or were kicked out of their family’s home because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. While these numbers don’t sound new, the massive study, taken from the results of surveys of 354 youth agencies, confirms tragic previous findings.
“Overall, respondents indicated that nearly seven in ten (68%) of their LGBT homeless clients have experienced family rejection and more than half of clients (54%) had experienced abuse in their family,” the study, conducted from October 2011 through March 2012, notes, adding that “family rejection on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity was the most frequently cited factor contributing to LGBT homelessness.”
Other findings include:
Running away from home because of family rejection was the most frequently cited reason, as 46% of respondents thought that was one of the most important factors in LGBT homelessness (see Figure 7). A similar portion of respondents (43%) said that LGBT youth had been kicked out of their homes. A third of respondents cited physical, emotional, or sexual abuse.
Relative to other homeless youth, nearly six in ten respondents (58%) report that transgender homeless youth have worse physical and mental overall health.
Half of respondents also thought that the overall health of their LGB homeless youth clients was worse than other homeless youth.
Respondents said that nearly two-thirds of their LGBT homeless youth clients (65%) have mental health issues and more than half (53%) have histories of alcohol and substance abuse.
Respondents say that about four in ten LGBT homeless youth clients have been subject to sexual exploitation and sexual assault. About a third have been in foster care, have experienced domestic partner abuse, and have had contact with the juvenile justice system.
Additionally, the study, written by Laura E. Durso, and Gary J. Gates at UCLA’s Williams Institute, offers great financial detail about the shelters and agencies that serve our homeless youth, and the financial burdens they experience daily.
It would be negligent to omit, given today’s political climate, what a Mitt Romney presidency would do to these already-challenged front-lines of defense.
The 15-page study, called “Serving Our Youth: Findings from a National Survey of Service Providers Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth who are Homeless or At Risk of Becoming Homeless,” was performed by The Williams Institute in conjunction with Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors Fund, and The Palette Fund.
from The New Civil Rights Movement

A new minor in a sociology department sounds like a pretty innocuous development. And the headline on a blog post last week from the president of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette was labeled simply “New Minor in Sociology.”
But the president, E. Joseph Savoie, was defending the new minor because it has come under attack by some social and political groups in the state, which question the minor because it is in LGBT (for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) studies. The minor is the first in the state, although some tracks in Tulane University’s major in gender and sexuality studies may offer more of an emphasis on LGBT studies. Tulane is a private institution, however, and less vulnerable to political scrutiny.
The Louisiana Family Forum, which calls itself the “voice for traditional families” in the state and has considerable political influence in parts of Louisiana, denounced the minor, and that in turn prompted a series of newspaper articles in the state (some of them featuring comments denouncing the university), and statements from some politicians.
“Formerly, aberrant behavior among individuals was regarded with shame. Today, UL Lafayette proudly offers ‘a degree in immorality.’ Louisiana Family Forum is disappointed in this misuse of public and student tuition funds. UL’s advocacy for alternative lifestyles will certainly be met with opposition from taxpayers, tuition underwriters and other key UL supporters,” says the forum’s statement.
The forum also is questioning the website for the new program, which is fairly minimal, with listings of courses one would need to take to qualify for the major. “The university’s web page for the new LGBT minor clearly omits facts and statistics which demonstrate the medical, physical, emotional and dangers of a lifestyle which is counter to Louisiana values.”
U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry, a Republican, sent a letter to Savoie saying that future graduates of the university may not be able to be proud of the institution because of the new minor, KLFY News reported. The letter said that the new minor “fails to provide an economic benefit to the participants or financial sense for the taxpayer.” (The minor is made of up currently offered courses taught by current faculty members, so university officials have said that it has no new expenses.)
The minor requires students to take two courses focused on gay studies: Introduction to LGBT Cultural Studies and Gender Across Cultures. Then students must take three more courses from among a range of offerings in the liberal arts disciplines, but the courses must have some LGBT content in them, so some sections of a course might not qualify while others would have enough content to be relevant to the minor.
In his statement on the controversy, President Savoie noted that while critics have called the minor a “degree,” that’s inaccurate. As is the case with all minors, they do not replace the major as the field in which students are awarded degrees. He argued that the minor is consistent with offerings of other colleges and universities and will help students.
“LGBT studies have been an academic area of study in the United States for nearly 50 years and exist at some 200 universities in the United States in a variety of forms as courses, minors or degree programs. Rooted in sociology, studies of human subgroups help prepare students for careers, such as counselors, personnel directors, teachers, social workers, criminal justice professionals, health care providers, managers and those involved in pastoral care,” Savoie wrote. “Regardless of our personal feelings, as an academic institution, the university is obligated and committed to, within the law, the discovery and dissemination of knowledge, the protection of individual and group rights, and the preservation of religious and academic freedoms.”
DeAnn Kalich, a sociology professor who is coordinating the minor, said via e-mail that she agreed with the president’s post and that she did not want to comment on the criticisms of the program. But she said that it was important to offer instruction in this area. “People who are LGBT are a cultural minority that faces institutionalized and individualized discrimination. To offer factual education to interested students about violence, hate crime, bullying in schools, HIV/AIDS, legal issues, and other topics of global importance is to prepare them for the issues of the time,” she said.
from Inside Higher Ed

Chris Colfer

When Chris Colfer was just 20, he’d already been named one of GQ magazine’s men of the year, having sung and acted his way into the hearts of America as Kurt, the high-pitched, openly gay brunet who is unabashedly himself on the hit TV show “Glee.” Colfer’s star had risen so fast in the year he’d starred on the Fox comedy that a literary agent asked him to pen his autobiography — an endeavor Colfer had the good sense to decline because it was so premature.
Instead, Colfer offered “The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell” (Little, Brown: 448 pp., $17.99 ages 8 and up) — an idea he’d been percolating since age 10. His fairy tale mash-up, about twins who fall into story land and embark upon a scavenger hunt through the kingdoms of Goldilocks and other legendary damsels in distress, will be published Tuesday.
“I’ve been obsessed with fairy tale characters since my mom started reading stories to me as a kid,” said the now-22-year-old actor, adding that the book his mother read didn’t have illustrations but photos of dolls in various positions. “It was very creepy,” said Colfer, who nevertheless found inspiration in the morals and characters of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen.
Colfer’s favorites were “Snow White,”"Sleeping Beauty” and”Cinderella” “because they’re like a fairy tale sampler platter” with the castle, the curse and the prince who saves the day. All three beauties, and at least a dozen more, are present and accounted for in “The Land of Stories,” which begins with “Once upon a time…” and follows a 12-year-old brother and sister as they attempt to collect strands of Rapunzel’s hair, a strip of bark from Red Riding Hood’s basket and other seemingly impossible items for a wish that will let them return home.
Like any tale worth its fairy dust, “The Land of Stories” is infused with a moral: “There’s a whole world out there just waiting for you to discover it,” Colfer said. “‘Happily ever after’ is something that you make. It’s not given to you.”
Colfer’s professional success offers living proof. “With ‘Glee,’ I’ve had my own ‘Cinderella’ story,” he said, though he acknowledges that fame isn’t the happily ever after it’s often portrayed to be. “God, no. It used to drive me nuts when people said, ‘So. You used to be bullied. Now you’re famous.’ That only opens me up to more bullying. Yes, I’m very lucky I get to do what I love — to act and be on TV. I’m very fortunate, but once you’re out there, you’re out there, and it’s like fame is standing on a pillar in a crowded room and giving the whole world a chance to go at you.”
Colfer, who is openly gay, was so severely bullied in middle school that he was home-schooled for a couple of years in his native Clovis, Calif. Is it coincidence, then, that the twin protagonists in his middle-grade authorial debut are roughly the same age when they escape into a land of make-believe?
Only subconsciously, he said. Twelve “is a very crucial age when kids realize, ‘Oh. This is the real world.’ It’s the age when kids stop believing in magic,” said Colfer, who grew up reading “Harry Potter,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “Alice in Wonderland, “The Wizard of Oz,”"Peter Pan” and other escapist classics about alluring alternate realities. QuotingJ.K. Rowling, Colfer said magic is so appealing because it’s the belief of power in oneself.
(more…)

Michael Austin

A sales rep who was repeatedly accused by colleagues of being gay just because he was not a football fan has been awarded almost £44,000 for the harassment he suffered.
Michael Austin, 48, was also branded a ‘crafty butcher’ – slang for homosexual – by his workmates, who were avid Newcastle United supporters.
Newcastle employment tribunal heard that it was ‘quite normal’ in the North East for anyone who does not like football to be considered gay.
Mr Austin’s interest in the arts and viewing of a documentary about surrealist painter Dali were taken as ‘further evidence of his homosexuality’.
Mr Austin, who is a married father-of-one, was also upset when he went to make a cup of tea – and then found porn had been put on his computer.
When he was seriously ill with swine flu, his boss Ian Laidlaw texted him saying: ‘Oink oink, lol’.
On his return to work at packaging firm Samuel Grant, his colleagues greeted him wearing surgical masks. In his very first week, one office worker pretended to suffer from Tourettes syndrome and swore at him endlessly.
Mr Laidlaw and a quarter of the firm’s staff at its Jarrow offices were Jehovah’s Witnesses and tried to ram their religion down Mr Austin’s throat, the tribunal heard.
He was encouraged to attend faith meetings and regularly lectured about religion.
When Mr Austin made a formal complaint about bullying and inappropriate homophobic and religious remarks, he was summarily sacked from his £25,000-a-year post.
The tribunal found that Mr Austin, of Durham, suffered ‘atrocious’ bullying by managing director Mr Laidlaw and fellow sales executive Tony Kozlowski.
It found Leeds-based Samuel Grant guilty of harassment on the grounds of sexual orientation and religion and victimisation.
The panel awarded Mr Austin £43,755 for loss of earnings and injury to feelings.
In its judgment, it ruled: ‘It was a series of treatment by two people over a period of several months during which Mr Austin was treated atrociously, by being referred constantly to being gay, homosexual and a crafty butcher.
‘It was extreme, frequent and very unpleasant. All he wanted to do was get out and get on with his job.
‘He was subjected to unwanted religious discussions, then when he made a complaint was dismissed.
‘It has obviously had a deep-seated emotional effect on Mr Austin.’
The tribunal also ordered that the company’s directors and managers must receive diversity training within six months.
Speaking after the recent judgment, Mr Austin said: ‘The level of compensation was a pleasant surprise but this was never about the money. It was about me getting justice for what happened to me at Samuel Grant.
‘I have always worked as a sales rep for blue chip companies. I thought it would make a nice change to work for a small, family-run business and make a big impact there.
‘I was really looking forward to it but it was an absolutely unbearable, dreadful nightmare from day one. The only thing I can compare it to was the tough comprehensive school I attended in the 1970s.
‘There was an atmosphere of fear generated by Mr Laidlaw and Mr Kozlowski and everyone was watching their backs. It got to the point where I could not stand it any more. I thought I had nothing to lose by making a formal complaint.
‘But they had a meeting in Leeds and decided to get rid of me. If they’d apologised, handed me a month’s pay and wished me all the best for the future, I would have walked away.
‘Instead, they were arrogant and lied every step of the way. They got staff who had worked with me to lie at the tribunal.
‘The tribunal was the most stressful time of my life but it was really embarrassing for them because everything came out.’
Mr Austin joined the firm as a sales executive in September 2010. On his first day Mr Laidlaw told Mr Austin that Mr Kozlowski suffered from Tourette’s and to ‘just ignore him’.
Mr Kozlowski admitted to the tribunal that his constant swearing had been ‘crass and out of order’.
Mr Austin was asked whether he liked football. When he said he was not interested in it he was told ‘you’re gay then’. Mr Laidlaw and Mr Kozlowski also told him he was ‘not a real man’.
The tribunal panel noted: ‘Both Mr Laidlaw and Mr Kozlowski, in their evidence, say that such an expression is quite normal in north east England football circles, in that anybody who does not like football must accordingly be homosexual.’
Mr Kozlowski equated Mr Austin’s willingness to do household chores with him being gay.
Mr Laidlaw also sent ‘overtly sexist and racist’ emails to staff, the tribunal found.
He and Mr Kozlowski would quote tracts from the Bible and brand anyone with an alternative religious view ‘a Pagan’.
In March last year Mr Austin formally complained of bullying by Mr Laidlaw and Mr Kozlowski.
Just over two weeks later Mr Austin was marched out of the building and summarily dismissed.
Neither of the culprits were suspended with their behaviour later dismissed as ‘banter’.
The firm claimed that Mr Austin was sacked for poor performance but the tribunal found the real reason was Mr Austin’s complaint.
It ruled that Mr Laidlaw and Mr Kozlowski ‘colluded’ with other employees and that their evidence was ‘unconvincing and contrived’.
It found that Mr Laidlaw was responsible for an office culture of sexism, racism and religious discussion.
It said: ‘This conduct is led by the managing director who sets the tone of the culture within the office by his own behaviour and by accepting the behaviour of others.’
Mr Austin was fired because ‘Mr Laidlaw knew serious complaints had been made and, with proper investigation, could be proved.’
The tribunal heard that Mr Austin declined his GP’s offer of medication for work-related stress.
But he broke down while on a walk with his daughter and wept several times while giving his evidence to the tribunal.
The tribunal heard that Mr Austin has been unable to find another job. He has now set up his own business.
from The Daily Mail