Golden Girl leaves $300k to a homeless gay youths centre

[Martinus]

I think this line of reasoning is pretty fallacious. Unless you actually believe that a GLBT youth centre is unnecessary, then you could essentially make this argument against any charitable donation - because you could always find a "more worthy cause".

Why give money to a shelter for homeless animals if you could give it to war veterans? Why given money to war veterans, if you could give them to children suffering from leukemia. And so on.

You're right, which is why I'm not making the argument that some other charity is "more worthy" than another.

I am only making the argument that we should not provide overly-specialized services and should try to keep them open to serve as many people as possible.

But "normal" youths centres are not prepared to deal with issues of queer kids - I don't have statistics handy but I believe queer kids tend to run away from such centres, because they meet with abuse and violence from non-queer kids (even in the absence of actually anti-gay message of the organization running the centre).

So the question is not whether to help both queer and non-queer kids in a non-queer centre vs. helping just queer kids in a queer centre; it's whether to help non-queer kids in a non-queer centre or queer kids in a queer centre - that's the counterfactual here.

While definitely there are more non-queer kids out there (though a percentage of queer homeless kids among homeless kids is definitely higher than the percentage of queers in the general populace), if we adopted your line of reasoning, noone would help queer kids at all and they would stay in the streets.

[The Brain]

Gay youth shelter? What's Grallon's place for?

[Barrister]

I didn't say they would turn him away - but he wouldn't get a "it's ok to be gay" message in ALL of them either, no?

Self-acceptance is a significant part of a healing process for any gay youth, especially one that has been kicked out of his home by parents who think being gay is a sin. Having to stay in a place run by an organization that considers it a sin to be gay as well is not going to be exactly helpful either.

Direct them to one of the many "its okay to be gay" services then.  I know they exist, and I'm not disparaging them in any way.

The issues of being homeless however are somewhat distinct from the issues of being gay.

[Valmy]

Gay youth shelter? What's Grallon's place for?

[Martinus]

I didn't say they would turn him away - but he wouldn't get a "it's ok to be gay" message in ALL of them either, no?

Self-acceptance is a significant part of a healing process for any gay youth, especially one that has been kicked out of his home by parents who think being gay is a sin. Having to stay in a place run by an organization that considers it a sin to be gay as well is not going to be exactly helpful either.

Direct them to one of the many "its okay to be gay" services then.  I know they exist, and I'm not disparaging them in any way.

The issues of being homeless however are somewhat distinct from the issues of being gay.

Ok I guess it's a question of misunderstanding then - the centre we are talking about here is one of the "it's okay to be gay" centres. As I said, I'm willing to bet it wouldn't turn away non-gay youths.

[derspiess]

Ok I guess it's a question of misunderstanding then - the centre we are talking about here is one of the "it's okay to be gay" centres. As I said, I'm willing to bet it wouldn't turn away non-gay youths.

Yeah, but I bet the non-gay kids would get harassed by the gay ones there.

[Faeelin]

I actually doubt that.  A gay youth shelter is far more trendy and probably gets much more support than a shelter for more typical homeless people (i.e. smelly old drunks).

I was wondering why not have just a youth homeless shelter.  Why turn away straight kids?

Gay kids are far, far more likely to be homeless, often after coming out (or being outed) to their parents. And they often have the psychological issues that come with that.

http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/RG-homeless.html

http://gaylife.about.com/od/headlinesnewsstories/a/glbthomeless.htm

[Barrister]

I actually doubt that.  A gay youth shelter is far more trendy and probably gets much more support than a shelter for more typical homeless people (i.e. smelly old drunks).

I was wondering why not have just a youth homeless shelter.  Why turn away straight kids?

Gay kids are far, far more likely to be homeless, often after coming out (or being outed) to their parents. And they often have the psychological issues that come with that.

http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/RG-homeless.html

http://gaylife.about.com/od/headlinesnewsstories/a/glbthomeless.htm

I'm not disputing that in the slightest.

What I was questioning is whether it is a better strategy to build separate and distinct homeless shelters for distinct groups, or to make more broad-based homeless shelters.

[Martinus]

I actually doubt that.  A gay youth shelter is far more trendy and probably gets much more support than a shelter for more typical homeless people (i.e. smelly old drunks).

I was wondering why not have just a youth homeless shelter.  Why turn away straight kids?

Gay kids are far, far more likely to be homeless, often after coming out (or being outed) to their parents. And they often have the psychological issues that come with that.

http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/RG-homeless.html

http://gaylife.about.com/od/headlinesnewsstories/a/glbthomeless.htm

I'm not disputing that in the slightest.

What I was questioning is whether it is a better strategy to build separate and distinct homeless shelters for distinct groups, or to make more broad-based homeless shelters.

In a more mainstream situation (like schools) I would share your view (simply because it is better to integrate than to segregate) but here we are talking about kids with significant traumatic experiences that require a special approach and that could be harmed by exposure to the "real world", with its homophobia etc.

We are not talking here about kids that got involved in juvenile crimes and ran away, or even kids from broken homes, but kids from "normal" homes, who came out (or were outed) and were kicked out by their "normal" parents and closest families for being "monsters", "perverts" and "abominations". They have different needs and different socio-psychological make-up. They don't require reintegration into the society as much as they require a nurturing and accepting environment.

[Admiral Yi]

Where do you get these generalizations on gay homeless kids from?

[Faeelin]

Where do you get these generalizations on gay homeless kids from?

What generalizations? I provided a couple of links discussing the topic; you have google.

[Ed Anger]

I would have had the cash buried with me.

[Admiral Yi]

What generalizations? I provided a couple of links discussing the topic; you have google.

My post was meant for Marty.

[Faeelin]

I would have had the cash buried with me.

I'd have your mom buried with me.

[PDH]

I would have had the cash buried with me.

I'd have your mom buried with me.

and that's is why you outclass mart.