Trans Formed: To Be Homeless and Transgender

[MountainLaurel]

The night my church opened its 10-bed homeless shelter for 18-to-24-year-olds, I volunteered to supervise them. A novice to any kind of shelter experience, I was nervous as I dragged my red cart with pillow and blanket to the church, and grateful that Mina, an elegant, 70-something social worker, also would be there.

Six young people arrived in a clump at 10 p.m., clutching pillows and belongings and, in one case, a teddy bear. They came from Sylvia's Place, an overcrowded downtown shelter. One woman, wearing a do-rag under a baseball cap, surprised me with a quick hug. In the coming months, she would outline the danger she felt in our relatively safe-seeming Manhattan neighborhood, how every time she walked outside she'd hear some comment, how she was hit in the face just waiting for the bus.

But that night we didn't talk much. I fussed around, putting out food and setting up beds. After midnight, when everyone else was asleep, Mina wrapped herself in a blanket and propped herself on a chair against the wall. I stayed awake in the kitchen, by the light, reading. The next morning we woke everyone at 8 and ushered them out, still groggy, into the icy February air. I walked home past restaurants that looked newly exclusive and out of reach. Overwhelmed by the luxury of it all, I crawled under my thick yellow duvet and slept.

That was more than two years ago. During a recent weekend work retreat, my teaching colleagues and I were drinking cappuccino when I mentioned our shelter is for LGBT young adults.

read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/27/AR2008072701583.html

[Zenlitened]

1. Wow. A very powerful article. Thanks for posting.

Definitely worth reading through to the end:

... I no longer juxtapose my life against theirs, as I did on that first night, but try to see them more on their own terms. More often than not they are philosophical, cleareyed and remarkably resilient in the face of the most intense rejection imaginable. Acronyms and labels are dissolving as individual faces become distinct.

(snip)

It's hard to explain -- just as the spectrum of gender is hard to explain. Parents' and society's rejection of children who don't fit the norm is hard to explain, too. But most confounding of all is the forbearance these young people have in the face of intolerance and cruelty. They go -- like the definition of trans-- "across, beyond and through" preconceptions. They are unlike anyone I have encountered before.

[dsc]

2. amazing piece

What a great guy to be doing that and I hope we see a day soon when it won't be needed.

[ThomCat]

3. That is volunteer work that saves lives.

I wish more people could/would volunteer.

It's not easy, and it's not always fun, but you defitely learn a lot and grow from it.