What happens to homeless LGBTQ+ youth when the shelters are out of beds?
The following is an excerpt from “Making Room” by Carl Siciliano, founder of the Ali Forney Center, the largest agency dedicated to LGBTQ homeless youth in the country. In the eighties and nineties, queer people were considered largely untouchable by mainstream politicians. Republicans at their best ignored us, and at their worst scapegoated us to win the conservative Christian vote. Democrats were less inclined to attack us, but kept us at arm’s length, like some embarrassing relative you tolerate at necessary holiday functions. Even as late as 2012, Barack Obama, the champion of “hope and change,” refused to endorse our right to […]