Seriously...LGBT kids

[Chris James]

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2012/07/americas-shame-40-percent-of-homeless-youth-are-lgbt-kids/

Here I could rant about parenting, at least about the bad parents who toss gay kids out the door like yesterday's trash. Some people were never meant to be parents, but like the hetero marriage they entered into, it comes with a set of rules which are being broken.

In most states, and by Federal law, parents and schools are responsible for assuring the education of persons under the age of eighteen. There are a whole bunch of parents out there breaking those laws and yet we don't see a single story in the news about the laws being enforced.

About two-thirds of the states have laws that make parents responsible for any criminal acts committed by their children and California seems to have the toughest one around. But although the CA law was intended for use in gang situations it would appear to work fine against the parents who push kids out the door. Homeless kids who sleep on the street or engage in prostitution are breaking the law and parents should be held accountable.

My thoughts here are nothing new, this issue has been around for decades and only seems to grow worse. The forces in the gay community are focused on adult issues like gay marriage while the youth issues suffer in silence. Perhaps it is time for a major change.

I imagine the right wingnuts in all these pseudo-Christian anti gay groups would look foolish if they opposed the plight of homeless youth on the streets of America. Parents who toss their minor children on the street for being gay, lesbian or transgender would certainly not find support from the likes of Focus on the Family. Those organizations would be committing religious suicide of they came out in support of abandoning children.

Tossing a minor child out the door without an access to education and shelter is a crime and parents need to be held accountable. This is simple child abuse and yet the solutions are anything but simple. I am all for sending parents to jail in these circumstances. I am surprised that we have not seen such action taken by any state or local prosecutors.

It is time the gay community stood up for the rights of our homeless youth. If the right wingnuts are going to rant and rave about gay adults recruiting kids and "making" them gay then let's give them something to scream about and make fools of themselves. That would seem to be an easy chore.

Dan Savage needs a new cause. "It Gets Better" does not apply to a homeless LGBT child.

[DesDownunder]

The pseudo-Christian 'family' groups are consumed with their hatred of sex, particularly sex between same gender persons. They hide behind the dogma of their religion, proclaiming that they hate the sin and love the sinner. That this 'sin' is only their view does not seem to be understood. LGBTQ people tend to be anti-religion, a good many of us being atheist/agnostic/heathen, but that's another topic.

What is relevant here is the lack of faith these people have in their own children, but they have lots in their version of "The Lord."

Reminds of the married couple driving down the street, when the husband says, "Oh Look at that rubbish bin, someone has thrown out a perfectly good white boy."

"Keep driving," urges his wife, "The lord will look after him if he is deserving."

How convenient, how lacking in common decency let alone, being devoid of compassion. No 'good Samaritan', here.

Worse are the calls to re-criminalise homosexuality with penalties of death.

In reference to the linked article, it must be understood that the right to marry is the gold standard in recognising human relationships in our cultures. If you are not free to seek marriage to another person, then you are not free at all, and all the reassurance in the world is not going to give those young teens any chance to believe that "It gets better."

Only if they can see that they are as entitled as everyone else to human rights equality, will they feel that "it gets worthwhile."

Homeless youth is a severe problem, but it must addressed whilst battling those who would deny us our human rights, not instead of it.

[Cole Parker]

Certainly 'gay rights' is something to be fought for. But a homeless kid needing food, clothing and safe shelter is something that needs fixing right now. It can't wait. The immediacy of this need supercedes the ongoing crusade to improve the rights of the gay community, in my mind.

Not that the one precludes the other.

C

[FreeThinker]

My stepfather once threatened to leave if my mother didn't kick me out of the house. Fortunately, I had places to go and she didn't give in to his demand, though she made sure I felt guilty about the situation. One of the reasons I attempted suicide as a teenager. I would like to think that there has been some progress since the seventies, but I wonder. There are school districts in Minnesota and Tennessee where, if a gay kid is bullied, the word "gay" cannot be mentioned in the reports or used as a reason for punishing the perps. There were three suicides in the one Minnesota district, which lies within Michelle Bachman's congressional district, and she fully supported the policy.

Yes, Homeless Youth needs to be the next great issue.

[Paco]

Homeless kids who sleep on the street or engage in prostitution are breaking the law and parents should be held accountable.

My problem with this statement is why is the government making homeless kids criminals? Prostitution is sometimes the only method of gaining money for food. The homeless are not criminals. We should be able to help people without involving the police or the court systems.

[Guest Dabeagle]

I think the point of Chris's statement is that for the kids to be put in that position of having to sell themselves the parents need to be held accountable, and for that the courts/police are necessary. Whenever a child is put in the position of having to sell their bodies for sustenance society has failed; society addresses many of it's failings, imperfectly, through the legal system.

[Cole Parker]

I would hope in this country kids trying to survive who resort to the only way they can do to that aren't thrown in to the legal system but instead are up in the CPS care system. I suppose it depends on age. And where you are. In some states, they don't seem to recognize that the kids are in survival mode. They read the law more dispassionately than in other states.

Unfortuantely, a kid often can't decide where he's going to live.

C

[Paco]

Experiences with the police are no better than the situations run from. Granted, mine were in Mexico, but just from the many stories generated in fiction sites you can see society is seriously failing kids. The police are more often servants of the well off, and only want the problem to disappear, not solve it.

Yes, I agree, the parents should be held accountable, if you can find them. I don't claim to have the answers, but I know what doesn't work.

[Guest Dabeagle]

Maybe I wasn't clear - I wasn't implying the kids should be arrested but more the parents held accountable for throwing their kids out.

[Paco]

Sorry, Mr. Beagle... Chris. Sometimes my mouth runs before my brain.