Politics

Some LGBT New Yorkers Feel Detached From Marriage Equality Success

The director of a local LGBT homeless relief organization, who advocates for LGBT rights, found herself unimpressed by the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling in June. Although many Americans are celebrating the decision that allows same-sex couples to marry across the United States, there are some who believe there is still a lot of work left to do to improve the plight of certain members in the LGBT community.

Kate Barnhart is the founder and director of New Alternatives, an organization based in New York, that provides food and relief services for homeless LGBT youth. Barnhart believes that now that gay marriage is legal nationwide, the LGBT community should focus on decreasing the number of LGBT children living on the streets.

“Now that we are done with marriage, we need to turn our attention to the homeless LGBT youth population,” said Barnhart. “Partly because it’s our struggles that have made a lot of the youth feel like coming out in early ages, even though that then puts them in dangerous and difficult situations.”

According to Barnhart, who founded New Alternatives in 2008, an increasing number of LGBT youth in New York are coming out to their parents. However, even in this liberal city many of these youth are shunned by their by their loved ones. “A lot of clients have been abused in their childhood,” Barnhart explained. “Many of their families did not accept them for being LGBT.”

Barnhart also notes that some kids are confronted with rejection from their peers and drop out of school. “A lot of people are faced with such extreme bullying,” said Barnhart.

Finding rejection from their peers and family, many LGBT youth leave home and live on the streets.

According to research released by Safe Horizon,  a victim assistance agency, living on the streets during adolescence makes kids more vulnerable to various dangers. Their report found that in addition to mental health issues, substance abuse, and assault, most young people are exposed to “survival sex,”where children trade sex for basic needs or a place to sleep.

Therefore, even with the success of the marriage equality movement, a growing community of gays, lesbians, trans and bisexuals say they feel detached and unaffected by the achievement.

Oscar Lopez, a previous volunteer at New Alternatives, shared this sentiment. “I think there’s been tremendous amounts of money and awareness raised for the marriage equality movement.” He added, “The problem with that is that the benefits of [marriage] only affect you if you are financially well off. So [for homeless people, marriage equality] is not really helpful.”

Barnhart says the marriage equality ruling actually disadvantaged her organization’s efforts during Pride Month. “[The New Alternatives’] traditional pride fund raising letter was going out over the Internet in the same few days that everyone was sending out yay marriage emails.” She added, “We didn’t get the funding we expect to see during pride because people were so swamped with emails.”

Stonewall Inn, a historic bar recognized for the Stonewall Riots, just one block away from New Alternatives, recently received landmark status in June. 46 years ago, homeless LGBT youth were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the LGBT movement. Almost five decades later, some in that community still feel their voices are lost in the mix.

When a client at New Alternatives was asked about gay marriage, she said, “I’m happy for them, but I’m transgender. What happens to us?”