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Reflection

I am not going to lie, this topic had me frustrated 24/7. I know I said in my presentation that it was easy to find sources, but I had just started it at the time. It was very hard to find sources that focused on just the transgender population becoming homeless, and when I did find something it only talked about the transgender youth becoming homeless mostly. It also hard finding pictures, I felt that there weren’t enough good ones or I just don’t know how to look.

This topic has changed my point of view of the world. I now realize just how judgmental people can really be and how far they are willing to take it. I do see a change forming. I have noticed that more people are willing and trying to change. That more people are trying to be accepting, and I just think that time, patience and cooperation will get us there. I hope others don’t just see the bad as they are reading through my project. I do want them to know the severity of how bad it gets and can get, but I also want them to pay attention to the positive outcomes. That’s why I posted those two stories that Angela and Lavern shared about themselves. They both went through hardships, but they both also had a cute happy ending. So, I hope that when people focus on this issue that they don’t just focus on all the bad. I want them to see what is being done about it and that this won’t continue on forever.

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References

1.       Gregory, Kia (2015). Doors often closed to transgender tenants searching for housing. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/9/25/doors-often-closed-to-transgender-tenant-searching-for-housing.html

 2.       Crossley, Shannon. Come out come out wherever you are: A content

analysis of homeless transgender youth in social service literature. Portland State University McNair Scholars Online Journal, Vol. 9, 2015. http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1147&context=mcnair

 3.       Nico Sifra Quintana, Josh Rosenthal, and Jeff Krehely “On the streets: the federal response to gay and transgender youth” (2010). https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2010/06/pdf/lgbtyouthhomelessness.pdf

 4.       13abc Action News (2015). Transgender woman upset after being kicked out of shelter.  p://www.13abc.com/home/headlines/Transgender-woman-upset-after-being-kicked-out-of-shelter-309397841.html

 5.       Substance abuse and mental health services administration (2015).  Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) http://www.samhsa.gov/behavioral-health-equity/lgbt

 6.       U.S. department of housing and urban development (2016). Ending housing discrimination against LGBT individuals and their families. http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/LGBT_Housing_Discrimination

Additional Resources

1.       National Center for Transgender Equality (2016). Transgender equality. http://www.transequality.org/issues/housing-homelessness

-this url leads you to a page that briefly describes what contributors do to help better this issue.

2.       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF2Gcza7zgQ

-this video talks about how the transgender community don’t want to live in the shelters because they are scared of being harassed and discriminated against.

3.       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiXUGBCyZqA

-This video is about a woman named Angela who went through a rough period after her mother kicked her out for having a boyfriend.

4.       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B6abyTQMlA&ebc=ANyPxKrUvblzYGoB1s29CJSMzX3Czm2p7HxIQmQo5_apUzKniLmxEoRy9EH3kHYIKdE210go1Nh8sgeUN_6vbhH0aPZKoEKpmg

-Even though this video doesn’t necessarily talk about the transgender population becoming homeless, I thought that this would be a good way to show people what they have to go through as a child and now as an adult as a transgender. (P.S.- this features Laverne Cox!!)

5.       Apicha Community Health Center (2015). Challenges of the trans community: homelessness. http://blog.apicha.org/challenges-of-the-trans-community-homelessness/

-This article goes over the reasons as to why the transgender population becomes homeless and it also gives some specific statistics.

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Suggested Solutions

1)      Proper funding

·         More LGBT health services that are lacking

·         Can improve the resources that we already have out there

·         More beds in the shelters

·         More shelters

2)      Enforce the law

·         The 32 states that don’t have any laws or policies that prevent this type of stuff from happening can make and enforce laws that prevent this from getting worse.

·         The states that do have those laws in place are still doing nothing about this issue, but if they are pushed to enforce the law then landlords cannot prevent somebody from buying or renting based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.

·         Enforcing the law can decrease the LGBT homelessness population.

·         Less sexual assault and harassment.

3)      Create more LGBT friendly homeless shelters

·   Maybe creating more LGBT friendly shelters will help make them feel more comfortable when they reach out for help, (I know this kind of contradicts what I said earlier about acceptance, but you can’t always change someone’s mind. So, you have to come up with a solution to that as well).

·   Definite decrease in the transgender population being out on the streets.

·   Since the won’t be out on the streets, there will also be a decrease in how many transgender people get sick both mentally and physically.

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Summary

I never really knew how serious this problem was until I started this project. I didn’t even know that this was an issue until this project. Hopefully I have explained how severe this problem is, and that you agree with me. There have been case studies where people have to fake who they are just so they aren’t turned down by the landlords. Statistics have also shown that out of the entire homeless youth population, 40% of them are transgender. That’s just the youth population people. Imagine the general population as a whole, don’t you think that’s an issue waiting to be solved? For example, Jennifer Braly. Just yet another woman who needs help from the people she’s supposed to trust wholeheartedly, only to be shunned and left out. She was told that she has to room with the men because that’s how she was born, but that’s not how she is now. Respect what she is now, not what she was then.

One major reason why the transgender community becomes homeless is because of family. It has even been reported that sometimes the family of the transgender kicks them out right after they come out and tell their family what has been holding them back. You know how when people tell you that it’ll be ok as long as you have your family? Well, these people were let down by the people who they should trust and feel comfortable with the most. Imagine how that feels, to have your family abandon you like that. And if you do get what I’m saying, then you should get why this is important. You don’t have to be transgender or a part of the LGBTQ community at all to feel that pain. This topic to me does relate to this class a lot in many ways, even though we never talked about it specifically. We did talk about how the transgender population has been discriminated against and/or oppressed many times. That’s how it relates to the things we’ve discussed in class. I’m just giving a more specific aspect of that.

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Intersectional Issue

From my understanding of the term “intersectional”, I believe that this is an intersectional issue because the transgender population has to face discrimination every day. Another example of this being an intersectional issue is gender. They’re being discriminated against because of their gender identity on a daily basis.

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Discussion of an Institutional example

One major contributor to the transgender homeless population is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The HUD “has issued guidance stating that discrimination against transgender renters or homebuyers based on their gender identity or gender stereotypes constitutes sex discrimination and is prohibited under the Fair Housing Act (FHA)” (National center for transgender equality, 2015). The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination based on multiple factors. These factors include race, sex, color, national origin, religion, disability and family status. Even though the FHA doesn’t specifically include gender identity or sexual orientation as “prohibited bases”. But, a LGBT person’s experience with either sexual orientation or gender identity housing discrimination can still be covered by the FHA.

Another big contributor to this issue is the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The SAMHSA created some educational resources for the LGBT homeless youth. They also contribute to developing national data collection protocols. They also help by trying to expand the health services for the LGBT community (Substance abuse and mental health services administration (2015).  So, they don’t just focus on the homeless transgender population, but they do help a lot by giving them these resources. One major long term effect that homelessness can have on anybody is mental and physical health issues. This is no different for the transgender population that becomes homeless, and that is why we should care. A cis gender female can get sick off the streets, but so can a transwoman. Instead of putting everyone in one category, we should just accept them as they are and treat them no differently than you would treat anyone else. If you think about it, everyone is different. No one is normal and no one is perfect. Everyone wants to judge the transgender community for their lifestyle, when in reality we’re just as different as them. We’re just different in another way.

1)      Substance abuse and mental health services administration (2015).  Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) http://www.samhsa.gov/behavioral-health-equity/lgbt

 2)      U.S. department of housing and urban development (2016). Ending housing discrimination against LGBT individuals and their families. http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/LGBT_Housing_Discrimination

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Throughout this video, a woman named Jennifer Braly is being interviewed in Toledo, Ohio in the year of 2015. Jennifer Braly has been a transwoman since 2011, and she was just evicted from her apartment after falling behind on the rent. Jen went to Sparrow's Nest homeless shelter for help late one Tuesday night, only to be shut down by them. When Jennifer began talking to the employees, one of them asked her out of no where if she was transgender. Jennifer answered "yes" proudly only to be told that she would have to stay in the men's section of the homeless shelter. Jen told them no that she isn't going to do that. She said she is a woman, and she fears for her safety if she were to be roomed with the men. Unfortunately, that's how these women thought about her being housed with the other women staying in the shelter. They did allow her to stay the night, but the catch was that she would have to stay in the lobby away from the other girls. 

 Dan Rogers, CEO of Cherry Street Mission Ministries, was also interviewed about the issue. Dan says that their mission is to help all in need. That it doesn't matter their gender identity or sexual orientation. He also stated that this has come up before, but never like this. What does he mean by that? Not so sure. I think he meant it in a way that it had never seen the light like Jennifer's story. He has also admitted that issues like this have happened in the past, but he can see that society is slowly but surely accepting the transgender population by seeing them live more openly. Dan does plan to speak with Jennifer to come up with some type solution to her problem. He also said that he hopes that this opens doors to helping the unhoused within the LGBT community. 

 There has been many cases where transgender people are turned down when they need help the most all because of their gender identity. As you can see, Jennifer Braly is just a woman. A woman who needs help and she is being turned down because she doesn't fit Sparrow's Nest definition of a "woman". "I am a normal person, with hard times and I am looking for the same safe shelter and help anybody else is", Jennifer Braly said this at the end of her interview. You can tell by her choice of words how hurt she was by the fact that she can't receive the same help and benefits that a cis gender would have gotten in a heart beat. 

 13abc Action News (2015). Transgender woman upset after being kicked out of shelter. p://www.13abc.com/home/headlines/Transgender-woman-upset-after-being-kicked-out-of-shelter-309397841.html

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Analysis of a Second Scholarly Source The second scholarly source that I chose to write about is called, “On the streets: the federal response to gay and transgender youth” by Nico Sifra Quintana, Josh Rosenthal, and Jeff Krehely. This article talks about both the gay and transgender population becoming homeless and how their lives are on the streets. Like I said before, it is very difficult to find a scholarly article that focuses on just the transgender population becoming homeless. Although this article does the very thing that Shannon Crossley might find aggravating, it was quite interesting. It talks about how becoming homeless at such a young can harm them in the future. When the transgender youth become homeless, they are at higher risk for sexual assault, harassment, mental health issues, and barriers to a free and appropriate education (Quintana, 2010). Usually when the transgender youth becomes homeless, they seek shelter in cars, shelters, public places, abandoned buildings, and other places that don’t seem appropriate for any human to live in (Quintana, 2010). Not only do they have to find a place to shelter themselves, but they also have to struggle with finding food and preventing themselves from becoming a victim of physical and sexual harassment (Quintana, 2010). Since most cities cannot handle the high demands for more homeless services and emergency shelters, they depend on the criminal justice system to take care of these homeless minors. Which is why transgender homeless youth are at a higher risk of either being incarcerated or committing a crime (Quintana, 2010). This doesn’t make sense because studies show that it costs a lot less to permanently move a homeless youth off the streets, ( which costs $5,887) than to maintain a youth in the criminal justice system for one year, (which costs $53,665) (Quintana, 2010). Since their homelessness can soon lead to incarceration, this leads to discrimination once they are incarcerated. A 2005 study has shown that the transgender inmates have reported being verbally, sexually and/or physically harassed by other inmates and the staff (Quintana, 2010). The same study has also shown that transgender youth report not being protected from unwanted sex that the staff forces upon them, and that they are more likely to be sexually assaulted while they are incarcerated. When the article starts to come to a close, it talks about how the federal government isn’t responding well to this problem. They’re not doing enough to “strengthen the safety nets for transgender youth to keep them from becoming homeless” (Quintana, 2010). The federal government is also failing to help this specific homeless population by not providing the proper funding to better these homeless services and shelters. Nondiscrimination regulations is also a big contributor to this issue, since they are not enforced in every state or people just don’t care enough to follow these rules, while the federal government doesn’t do anything to try to enforce them (Quintana, 2010). This article has touched a lot of aspects that deal with the transgender youth becoming homeless. Some things that I agree with these authors on is how the federal government is handling this situation. They aren’t really trying to provide any type of additional or proper funding so these homeless services can function properly, and they aren’t enforcing any nondiscrimination regulations that already do exist. There really isn’t anything that I disagree with, since the article mostly consisted of research and studies. Nico Sifra Quintana & Josh Rosenthal & Jeff Krehely (2010). On the streets: the federal response to gay & transgender homeless youth. https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2010/06/pdf/lgbtyouthhomelessness.pdf

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Analysis of a Scholarly Source

One major issue that I have come across multiple times in my research is the transgender youth population becoming homeless. The scholarly article that I chose is called, “Come out come out wherever you are: A content analysis of homeless transgender youth in social service literature”. I chose this scholarly article because it talks a lot about how even though the homeless transgender youth is discussed, it is underrepresented. By that I mean that they are being researched and discussed but instead of it being its own separate issue, they just put the entire homeless youth population together. Which isn’t right since transgender teens have specific needs that differ from the rest of the homeless population. There are many reasons why the transgender population becomes homeless, and one major reason is being discriminated by family. Some transgender youth have even experienced being forced out right after they share their gender identity with their families (Crossley, 2015).

According to Shannon Crossley, “Western society has constructed gender as being either male or female” (Crossley, 2015). Because of this idea that has been embedded into people’s minds, it has encouraged anti-homosexual and anti-transgender ideology towards those who don’t identify with the “gender norms”. Due to this, within the LGBTQ community, transgender youth are reported to “experience a higher incidence of violence and victimization in a large part due to their gender expression” (Crossley, 2015). Shannon has also found out that most of the homeless shelters in the United States do not have any written policies when it comes to placing transgender residents in their shelters. This forces that myth that transgender do not exist “in their daily operations by placing people according to birth-assigned gender” (Crossley, 2015). The homeless transgender youth population has also been reported to experience harassment, assault and rape from the staffs at the homeless shelters who are supposed to be helping them. They are usually harassed this way because of their gender identity. This has pushed many of them to choose one of two options. Those options are: to stick with their gender that was assigned at birth so they can receive the proper care that they already deserve, or to live out on the streets (Crossley, 2015). Another major thing that was discussed in this article is how the shelters and agencies that are supposed to help the homeless transgender population are underfunded. Since they are underfunded, that is a contributor as to why they are becoming homeless to begin with. These agencies and shelters being underfunded leads to less bed capacity to house them, leaves a barrier to improvement in services related to the LGBTQ community, and limited sources (Crossley, 2015). How can you help somebody if you don’t have what they need?

Although this article was very long and informative, it was quite interesting. It didn’t talk about just statistics and what happened in this year or that year, it looked at the transgender youth becoming homeless from a whole different perspective. I never really knew that the “Western society” was a huge contributor to why people think that gender strictly means whatever gender you were assigned at birth with, and pf course I do not agree with logic at all. I don’t believe that gender means whatever you were born with. Not that I have an exact definition, but that is definitely not one of them. Shannon has also concluded that even though the homeless transgender youth are being discussed, they aren’t being discussed in the way that it should be. I did mention earlier that I came across “transgender youth becoming homeless” a lot, but the information for that specific topic was never separate. It was always combined with the LGBTQ community or the general youth population as a whole. It is quite difficult at times to find information like this.

Crossley, Shannon. Come out come out wherever you are: A content analysis of homeless transgender youth in social service literature. Portland State University McNair Scholars Online Journal, Vol. 9, 2015.

http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1147&context=mcnair

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        Analysis of a web source    

In my media source titled “Doors often closed to transgender tenants searching for housing”, it goes over a couple of case studies throughout the whole article. One case study that was mentioned was of a transwoman named Paola Ramirez. She was at first always looked down upon by her father for not having that “machismo” characteristic like him. Once she grew up without her father’s acceptance and went off into the real world at age 21, she has had some troubles when it comes to looking for a home. Her first landlord would call her very derogatory names from his first-floor apartment such as “faggot” or “gay boy” every time he would see her. He would do this purposely just to show her disrespect and make her uncomfortable by not calling her by her preferred pronoun. Once she moved out of there and away from all the negativity, (or so she thought), she had to face another difficult landlord. Her landlord told her that her lease cannot be renewed unless she presented an ID that states her female name and her gender as female. Not only was this illegal of her landlord to be doing, but it is also very difficult to get documentations like that. According to Alison Gil, the senior legislative counsel at the Human Rights Campaign, in order to get these documentations in some states you have to undergo medical interventions, such as surgery (Gregory, 2015).

               Even though the transgender population has shown to be accepted more now with TV stars such as Laverne Cox from “Orange is the New Black” and Caitlyn Jenner, the Olympian athlete and now Vanity Fair cover girl, 20 percent of transgender people in the United States have been discriminated against while seeking a home, and more than 10 percent have been evicted due to their gender identity (Gregory, 2015). Many states also have many laws that do provide a variety of ways to protect people against discrimination, but none focus on the discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. The article also mentions how “housing insecurity” first started happening for people who are a part of the transgender community. Many say that it first started once their families pushed them out of their homes.(Gregory, 2015). Chen, a man who works with low-income LGBTQ people, has learned that the transgender population are constantly harassed by their neighbors. The people who Chen interviewed have reported that their neighbors would sexually harass them and would also make sexual gestures to try to get them to have sex with them. Some tenants even reported that their landlords would refuse to make repairs because they are transgender (Gregory, 2015).

                This source made me question a lot. Paola Ramirez ended up coming to a solution with her landlord, but it came at a price. The price was that she change the lease name to her cis male fiancé for $300 and then rent was raised by 20 percent (Gregory, 2015). This part made me question a lot because all I could think of was one simple word, and that is; why? Why do landlords go out of their way to make the transgender community uncomfortable and unwelcome in the one place on earth that they should feel free in? I don’t agree with the way the States are handling this issue either. There are so many cases and instances where discrimination against someone’s gender identity and/or sexual orientation has taken place, and there are still 32 states where a landlord can tell these people that they cannot have a home. 

Gregory, Kia (2015). Doors often closed to transgender tenants searching for housing.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/9/25/doors-often-closed-to-transgender-tenant-searching-for-housing.html

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Introduction

The topic I chose for this blog project is homelessness within the transgender community. I chose this because, I've always cared about how people are treated. It sometimes angers me that not everyone is treated equally and fairly. People don’t see people as just “people”, they see much more and start to discriminate based on what they think they know. So to hear that transgender people are being evicted or denied help from shelters due to their gender identity does anger me. 

I also wanted to explore this topic just so I can better understand their struggle and how they are oppressed. I want to better educate myself on the struggles that they have to face on a daily basis. This topic also catches my attention to the fullest. I honestly didn’t know that this was a recurring issue until I started doing research on what my topic should be about. Lack of awareness is also one contributor to this problem, so I figured that if I talk about it in as much depth as I can, it’ll help spread the awareness.