Email CCSD or Vis-à-vis | CCSD Home Page| Table of Contents (current issue)These young people are all products of one of Canada's leading social diseases homophobia. They left their homes in search of a safe place, a haven from the never-ending violence they face because of who they are. Lesbian, gay and bisexual young people suffer every day at the hands of ignorance, fear and a society that is taught to hate those who are different.
As a young person working with other young people, I have experienced these horrific conditions called living. A 14-year-old boy gets enough courage to tell his parents he is gay people who are supposed to respect and love him unconditionally. His father threatens violence if the boy ever talks about it again. His mother calls him names. In trying to identify with who he is, the boy pierces his ear, dyes his hair and changes his style of clothing. His father confronts him and assaults him physically. His mother supports the abuse with slurs. This is all her faggot son deserves she yells at him while he lies on the floor in tears.
Unfortunately, the story does not end here. His parents kick him out, and the boy joins thousands of street kids in Canada of whom an estimated 50% have sexual orientation issues. But the boy has learned just how dangerous it is to tell people who he is. So he lives in silence. Alone on the street, there are few avenues he can take. He has lost his school year and his job, and is now sleeping in a shelter. He tries to move back home, but dinner is still served with a side order of abuse. He starts experimenting with drugs and alcohol to try to get the support he was not getting at home.
Stories like this are common. Adults have not paid attention to these young people. They have not asked why young people are living in the streets in horrible conditions, so young people have started to band together to ask why. There are many different support groups in the country that now work with the philosophy of youth helping youth young people who have been there helping those who are there now. We have come together because adults have let us down in the past. We are connecting so that issues such as family violence to gay, lesbian and bisexual youth can be properly addressed, so that the unique issues facing lesbian, gay and bisexual youth, such as isolation, peer alienation and systemic homophobia, are exposed. We need to educate teachers, counsellors, health care workers and, most importantly, our families. Parents need to remember that homophobia is child abuse too.
Peter Hodgson is Director of Alberta Youth In Care and Custody Network. He can be reached at:
917 9th Avenue South East
Calgary, AB, T2G 0S5
Tel: (403) 266-4566, fax: 265-2458
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