Providers: Transgender homeless youth need better support in Asheville

ASHEVILLE — Throughout Western North Carolina, transgender homeless youth are making their way to Asheville to find support and shelter hard to locate in more rural areas of the region, nonprofit service providers reported Monday night.

Amid growing concerns over adequate service provision, advocates and allies for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trangender homeless youth met to discuss barriers to assistance and best practices.

The panel — titled "Homelessness and Queer Youth in WNC: The Problem, The Challenge and How You Can Make a Difference"— drew representatives from Western North Carolina Community Health Services, Help OUT Youth, Be Loved House, Trinity Place Youth Shelter, Haywood Street Congregation, the Campaign for Southern Equality, Tranzmission and the Western North Carolina AIDS Project.

About 50 people came to the event at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in downtown Asheville.

"It's a beginning, but it was a really good beginning to get people in the same room talking about this issue," said Jim Faucett, executive director of Youth Outright, a local nonprofit that offers discussion groups and social activities for LGBT and questioning youth ages 14 to 23.

"This is a significant issue, one that is often hidden even from my community," he said.

Youth Outright organized the event in conjunction with the Western North Carolina Gay Stray Alliance Initiative.

Often runaways or throwaways, not only are LGBT youth more likely to end up homeless, but once on the streets they tend to experience more physical and sexual exploitation than their homeless heterosexual peers, Keith Bramlett, professor of anthropology and sociology at UNC Asheville, said in his opening remarks.

Many institutions designed to keep youth off the streets, like schools, the juvenile justice system, foster care, health centers or after school programs, are under prepared to meet the unique needs of LGBT youth and remain transphobic or homophobic in their approach, he said.

While LGBT youth are estimated to comprise roughly 7 to 10 percent of the population, several studies indicate that 15 to 25 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBT. Conservatively, that is one in five homeless youth, said Bramlett, who is also a board member for Youth Outright.

"Youth consistently report severe family conflict as a primary reason for their homelessness," Bramlett said. "Conflict and violence over their sexual and gender identities is the singular most important factor in being thrown out of their homes," he said.

"The family conflict that renders them homeless sends them cascading though social safety nets not adequately resourced to support them," Bramlett said.

In addition to family violence and rejection, homeless LGBT youth also struggle with sexual abuse, neglect, drug or alcohol addictions and mental health problems, he added. Their vulnerable situation often leads to criminal activity and limited access to education and employment.

"In many ways, their strategies of survival have been criminalized," Bramlett said. "Without a home, job or safety net, surviving often means LGBT homeless youth are highly vulnerable to arrest. Importantly, it is never just that the LGBT youth are homeless but rather they confront multiple challenges and are vulnerable in multiple ways requiring a multifaceted approach to the problem."

Panelists said more service providers need to specifically address LGBT populations, providing their employees with better training and opportunities for advocacy.

Institutions interested in helping LGBT youth need to be affirming and create a culture of celebration, they said.

Support organizations also need to be more open and authentic about who is truly welcome, said Joey Lopez, who represented the Haywood Street Congregation and the Campaign for Southern Equality on the panel. "All doesn't always mean all in the faith community," he said.

During the question-and-answer section, audience member Yvonne Cook-Riley, who works for Blue Ridge Pride, said Asheville has become a "victim of its own success." Even if service provisions could be better in Asheville, homeless LGBT youth are already coming from Florida to New York to find safety here, she said.

A parent of a LGBT teen, Teresa Culpepper, traveled 92 miles north from Anderson, South Carolina, to learn how to better support her child.

Chase Culpepper, 16, sued South Carolina's Department of Motor Vehicles last year because the agency wouldn't allow the gender nonconforming teen to take a driver's license photo wearing makeup, citing a policy that bans people from purposefully altering their image on the official identification cards.

"This is just great," said Teresa Culpepper to the panel about the services and support available in Asheville. "But, we shouldn't have to send our youth to big cities. This sort of support needs to start at home."