Most people 20 years ago didn’t come out as gay or lesbian until well after they had left home and started working. If your family rejected you for being gay or transgender at that point, it may have been emotionally painful, but you probably could have taken care of yourself.
The usual coming out age today is in the mid-teen years, when young people still depend on their families to meet their material needs and are vulnerable if their families reject them because of their orientation, as new research from the Center for American Progress shows.
Many youth who come out are rejected by their families, harassed and victimized in schools, discriminated against in out-of-home care facilities, and brutalized in homeless shelters. They often resort to criminal activity, such as theft or "survival sex" in order to survive. The high rates of rejection, violence, and institutional discrimination combined with hostile school environments and social prejudice lead to an over-representation of gay and transgender youth among the homeless youth population.
Lesbian, gay, and transgender youth make up 20 to 40 percent of the homeless youth population but only 5 to 10 percent of youth in general. In other words, gay young people are about four times as likely to be homeless as heterosexual young people.
Yet there are currently no federal programs specifically designed to meet the needs of gay and transgender homeless youth, and there are no federal protections, and few state laws, in place to keep these youth from being discriminated against while accessing federally funded homeless services. Federal grants for homeless youth services are awarded to providers without mandating that they not discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity, leaving youth open to harassment from staff and other residents. The Center for American Progress offers five straightforward recommendations for a federal response to the crisis of homelessness among gay and transgender youth.