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

[Faeelin]

I am sure the LGBT community would never over-report their numbers.

And I would imagine that somewhere near 100% of homeless kids have some kind of sob story for why they are homeless, many of which would involve them being kicked out.

I don't doubt that there is more, but I would like to see some data from a group that isn't motivated to see a particular result from their "study".

'

Many experts estimate that while gay men and lesbians make up 3 percent to 5 percent of the general population, more than 20 percent of homeless youths under age 21 in many urban areas are gay, according to recent surveys of street youths and shelter workers published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and a study released in January by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Coalition for the Homeless.

In an eight-city study published in The Child Welfare Journal last year, Mr. Van Leeuwen and others found that gay homeless youths were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide while living on the streets than heterosexual homeless youths. The data drew from surveys conducted in 2004 of homeless youths in Austin, Tex.; Boulder, Colo.; Chicago; Colorado Springs; Denver; Minneapolis; Salt Lake City; and St. Louis

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/us/17homeless.html

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/20070307Seattle_Study_LGBT_youth.pdf

2nd link is from the American Journal of Public Health.

I'd suggest reading the ny times article in general.

[Malthus]

I find the idea that gay homeless kids are certainly the result of persecution to some greater extent than non-gay homeless kids a bit self serving.

That seems to be a logical consequence of just a few assumptions:

1) Gay kids are randomly distributed across households.
2) Persecution drives some children to homelessness across the spectrum.
3) Some households react poorly to gay children, causing additional homelessness.

In addition, while I haven't read the full study:

A recent study from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force stated that as many as 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBT.

In one study, 26 percent of gay teens who came out to their parents/guardians were told they must leave home

http://www.thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research/homeless_youth

This makes a certain amount of intuitive sense.

Assuming that being gay is to a degree a random occurance, a certain percentage of gay kids are bound to grow up with parents who are solidly homophobic, with bad results.

One thing I'll give my parents credit for - while they are by no means homophobic (quite the reverse), if they were, and I or one of my brothers were gay, they would change their opinion on that very quickly - their kids were more important to them than their prejudices.

[Jaron]

I'd love to see the reaction to a homeless shelter for white homeless youth.

[Martinus]

Berkut, why do you feel a need to challenge these results for such a long time? Do you have a personal stake in this somehow? I mean, I don't think you are challenging the fact that gay kids become homeless and that they are more likely to be homeless due to their parents homophobia. Even assuming that the numbers are inflated, what is it to you? I mean, you can't say one way or another - you have no research or experience to say that any other number would be correct.

So all you are doing is looking at an existing research, shake your head and say "Uhm, I'm still not convinced this is right."

Frankly, I can't think of a good psychological explanation for that behaviour other than homophobia.

[Berkut]

It could be homophobia. Or it could be normal old skepticism at fishy data.

You are so stereotypical though - "Believe my silly data, or you are a homophobe!" It is right up there with "But into Obama's healthcare plan, or you are a racist!"

[Ed Anger]

Mart's histrionic gland is enlarged in fury.

[Iormlund]

I don't doubt that there is more, but I would like to see some data from a group that isn't motivated to see a particular result from their "study".

My data sample is a bit small, but here you go: Out of a total of one (1) guys kicked out of their homes as teens, all (1) were gay, their parents having failed to come to terms with the news.
He was a German in my first EVE corp during beta. Nice guy, disappeared suddenly. A few weeks later he logged in from a café to say goodbye. Last I knew he had dropped out from high school to pay the bills. Pity, he was a fairly smart kid.

[Berkut]

I don't doubt that there is more, but I would like to see some data from a group that isn't motivated to see a particular result from their "study".

My data sample is a bit small, but here you go: Out of a total of one (1) guys kicked out of their homes as teens, all (1) were gay, their parents having failed to come to terms with the news.
He was a German in my first EVE corp during beta. Nice guy, disappeared suddenly. A few weeks later he logged in from a café to say goodbye. Last I knew he had dropped out from high school to pay the bills. Pity, he was a fairly smart kid.

Out of all the people I know who either left home or were kicked out of the house, I don't know that any of them are gay.

Of course, I was in freaking Kansas at the time that I knew people of the "bailing on home" age, so its not like they would admit to being gay anyway. The only two gays guys I knew well though were certainly not kicked out of their home.