May 5th, 2013 at 2:18PM
The first major factor that marginalizes and criminalizes members of our community is homelessness. According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, “Of the estimated 1.6 million homeless American youth, between 20 and 40 percent identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).” The task force also reports that “26 percent of gay teens who came out to their parents/guardians were told they must leave home; LGBT youth also leave home due to physical, sexual and emotional abuse.” In addition to being more likely to participate in criminalized activities like drug use and sex work, homeless LGBTQ youth face the many criminal sanctions which explicitly target the homeless. According to a 2009 report by The National Coalition for the Homeless:
Even though most cities do not provide enough affordable housing, shelter space, and food to meet the need, many cities use the criminal justice system to punish people living on the street for doing things that they need to do to survive. Such measures often prohibit activities such as sleeping/camping, eating, sitting, and/or begging in public spaces and include criminal penalties for violation of these laws. Some cities have even enacted food sharing restrictions that punish groups and individuals for serving homeless people. Many of these measures appear to have the purpose of moving homeless people out of sight, or even out of a given city.
This criminalization of homelessness is not limited to cities conventionally seen as conservative. To the contrary, the same 2009 report ranked both liberal Berkeley and the famously queer friendly San Francisco among their “10 Meanest Cities” for criminalizing homelessness. These criminal sanctions put queer and trans homeless youth at increased risk of eventual incarceration. — “The PIC vs. the Queer & Trans Community” by Quantum Tuba
#lgbt#queer#homelessness#communism#anarchism
May 5th, 2012 at 4:29PM
: Bloomberg Plans to Throw Homeless Youths Out of Their Shelter Beds

arielnietzsche:

At the Ali Forney Center we are confronted every day with kids who have been thrown out of their homes by homophobic parents. The kids are devastated to have been cast out like trash and terrified of what will happen to them. Because New York City only provides 250 youth…

(via sabots-are-for-sabotage)
25 notes Source: The Huffington Post #new york#Michael Bloomberg#houselessness#homelessness#poverty#capitalism
March 28th, 2012 at 4:16PM

nickfochtman:

Sunday’s Occupy Portland rally and subsequent march was (at least for the portion that I was in attendance) a relatively calm affair. It was not met with anywhere near the level of police resistance that other recent direct actions have. It was actually pretty shocking that the march blocked just about every major street in downtown PDX and I didn’t see a single cop until everyone started setting up outside of city hall. Maybe it was the fact that it was Sunday, but still I would have expected that after a while they would have at least tried to talk to the group to figure out where they were heading. Anyways, I’ve put up a slideshow of some of the photos that I got. I’ll likely have some more over the coming days as I scan in some of the film that I processed this morning.

Until then…

The sleepover at city hall was killer.  Butterflyrevolt and I were both there!

(via nickfochtman-deactivated2012062)

11 notes #occupy portland#End The Camping Ban#Fair Housing#Homelessness#Protest