By Gretchen Rachel Blickensderfer
On Nov. 19, the University of Chicago's ( UChicago's ) LGBTQ Social Justice and Activism organization Queers United in Power ( QUIP ) hosted a panel discussion at the institution's Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. The discussion centered around how to take action in the fight against LGBTQ youth homelessness. The university's students assembled a line-up of speakers who are each on the front lines in that struggle.
They included Director of Outreach and Health for the Night Ministry David Wywialowski alongside the organization's HIV outreach worker, Javon Garcia. They were joined by Howard Brown's Broadway Youth Center Director Imani Rupert and Windy City Times Publisher/Executive Editor Tracy Baim.
The panel was moderated by QUIP member and University of Chicago junior Matthew Gottesfeld.
According to Gottesfeld's fellow membersUniversity of Chicago juniors Kris Rosentel and Sara Rubinsteineducation is a key component in the accomplishment of QUIP's mission and has taken a variety of forms including LGBTQ 101 house-teaching programs presented to dorms and professors designed to make the campus a more inclusive space. QUIP's off-campus work connects them to groups and advocacy organizations in the Chicago community in order to increase their involvement in queer social change work across the city.
The events QUIP hosts throughout the semester are fashioned with not only educational but motivational components. "I was researching LGBTQ homelessness at UIC this summer," Rosentel said. "Something I noticed was that the research was very disconnected from practice and the people working on it didn't have any experience with LGBTQ homeless youth."
Meanwhile, Rubinstein spent her summer participating in an internship with Affinity helping them with follow-up work from their co-organization of the LGBTQ Homeless Youth Summit that Windy City Times hosted in early May.
Each of Rosentel's and Rubinstein's experiences inspired them to organize the evening's discussion entitled Action & LGBTQ Homelessness.
Through answers to questions posed by Gottesfeld and audience members packed into the facility, the panel covered a vast spectrum of concerns and, between them, painted a clear picture of the kind of life an LGBTQ homeless youth faces every day.
"There are a host of things that make it really difficult for someone just to be young in this country," Wywialowski stated. "A lot of times, when we talk about LGBTQ people, we're looking at this one part of someone's identity."
"We just need to think about housing before we can think about other things," he added citing Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. "With the vulnerable population that we are seeingsome of the young LGBTQ folks who either left home because it's not a safe place or were thrown out because of being who they arewe're out there connecting with them."
"When you're starting to do work, you need to think about making things as low barrier as possible," Rupert counseled the audience. "A lot of times you have all these rules about what people have to do in order to get what they need, which is honestly the silliest thing. We just want to offer services that young people can have access to. [They] need a place to live before they think about getting sober or anything else."
"More peer-to-peer support is needed," Baim added. "One of the biggest difficulties [LGBTQ homeless youth] have is that a lot of these social service agencies have huge staff turnover. So continuity of adult liaisons or mentors is difficult and a huge barrier to success."
"A lot of times they've created their own support systems, their own families in the street," Garcia said. "They've told me that 'I would rather be here on the streets with people I know and love than be living somewhere where I don't know anyone and no-one's looking out for me'."
"We have a difficult time where our program exists because neighbors don't like to see people like us in a lot places," Rupert said. "If a young person is homeless, trans* and of color, there's a lot of times when people get really mean. They say 'we don't like people that look like you'."
In calling the students to action, Baim suggested a challenge to educational leaders in Chicago. "There are allegedly around 19,000 homeless youth in the Chicago Public School system," she said. "At the college level, the numbers are huge. We need to charge university and college presidents in the Chicago area to come to a summit with their housing managers and talk about how colleges themselves can come up with solutions for housing their youth."
"We need really smart people who really care about doing this kind of work," Rupert said. "This is an excellent opportunity to change the world to make [life] easier for someone. It's really important work and it's good to do."