Homeless LGBTQ Youth Still Bearing the Brunt of COVID Crisis

When the coronavirus pandemic abruptly slammed New York City last year, homeless individuals were immediately impacted. Many providers offering much-needed in-person services quickly sh... Show more

their doors, housing insecurity worsened, and COVID-19 spread through crowded shelters. Now, nearly one year since the mass shutdowns in mid-March, homeless LGBTQ youth — already overrepresented among homeless individuals — have continued to find the COVID crisis consuming all aspects of their lives. Staff members who have weathered the storm are still strained. Kate Barnhart, the founder and executive director of New Alternatives for Homeless LGBT Youth, which helps queer young people transition out of the shelter system, said her clients are facing barriers to mental and physical healthcare as well as a lack of dedicated social spaces, among other lingering issues. At Ali Forney Center, which provides housing and support services to queer young people, they are seeing similar problems — including mental healthcare needs. “It is very much still a pandemic for us,” Alex Roque, Ali Forney Center’s president and executive director, told Gay City News. “People are coming to us really traumatized. They were already denied a home by the people who were supposed to love them unconditionally.” Alex Roque heads up the Ali Forney Center.Alex Roque The interruption of services early on in the pandemic led to a ripple effect that is evident today for clients of both New Alternatives and the Ali Forney Center. Barnhart pointed to an uptick in depression and anxiety cases, but she said her clients — who have to rely...

“Tax the Rich! Cuomo Cuts Kill!” LGBTQ Activists Take on the Gove...

As Governor Andrew Cuomo faced increasing calls to resign, a coalition of activists huddled at his office on March 1 to demand tax hikes on the rich and decry looming budget cuts that c... Show more

d wreak havoc on vulnerable New Yorkers. The demonstration at 633 Third Avenue in Manhattan, which featured ACT UP New York, Housing Works, VOCAL-NY, Treatment Action Group, the Reclaim Pride Coalition, and others, was held just one month before New York is slated to impose major changes to the federal 340B program, which requires drug manufacturers to distribute medication to some providers at discounted rates. Local non-profits have issued warnings for months and stressed the disastrous implications the 340B changes could have on people living with HIV/AIDS, individuals experiencing homelessness, and others who rely on the stability of those funds. Vaccine rollout efforts, they say, would also be hampered if the changes proceed. “The proposed carve-out of the 340B drug pricing plan will hurt my community, Housing works clients, and the programs they use,” said Damon Grandison, who represented Housing Works. “The total loss to healthcare providers would be at least $250M ever year.” Among other points, activists ripped the governor for patting himself on the back when he recently touted progress in the fight to end AIDS. In New York City alone, Gay City News reported earlier this year that the city is on track to miss a key goal in the plan to end AIDS. Jason Rosenberg of ACT UP New York speaks alongside banners calling on Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature to take action.George de Castro Day  Th...

In Reversal, Major Christian Adoption Agency Vows to Work with Sa...

Bethany Christian Services, a large Evangelical national social services agency that is a major provider of foster care and adoption services, announced a change of its nationwide polic... Show more

n an email to staff members on March 1. Bethany will no longer automatically refer same-sex couples seeking their services to other agencies. Instead, Bethany will provide the services directly to married same-sex couples. The about-face comes at a time when the Supreme Court is considering the question of whether Catholic Social Services (CSS) can get a religious exemption from a Philadelphia policy stipulating that foster care agencies with city contracts must adhere to LGBTQ nondiscrimination requirements. “We will now offer services with the love and compassion of Jesus to the many types of families who exist in our world today,” Bethany’s president, Chris Palusky, said in the email to the agency’s approximately 1,500 staff members, according to the New York Times. “We’re taking an ‘all hands on deck’ approach where all are welcome.” Bethany’s formal position had been to provide such services only to traditionally married heterosexual couples, although some of its local operations had quietly begun to provide the services to married same-sex couples. It would not be the first time Bethany Christian Services reversed course on its own policy. Two years ago, they started placing kids in the homes of same-sex parents in response to legal action — but that policy shift was confined to the state of Michigan. The latest one applies to all Bethany Christian Services locations in the nation. In 2007, Bethan...

Reclaim Pride Coalition Announces Third Annual Queer Liberation M...

The third annual Queer Liberation March will take place, as expected, on Sunday, June 27, Reclaim Pride Coalition (RPC) organizers announced on March 1. The Queer Liberation March was f... Show more

t organized in 2019 in response to longstanding criticism over the corporate and police presence at Heritage of Pride’s (HOP) march, which activists have decried as a deviation from the original purpose of Pride. Instead, RPC — which hosted the only in-person Pride march in the city last year — bans uniformed police officers and corporations from participating in their march. More firm details, including the exact route and start time for the march, are not yet available. Details surrounding HOP’s march are also not yet finalized, though some sort of event is on tap for Pride Sunday. HOP is planning to hold an event that will be virtual with to-be-determined in-person “elements.” Following RPC’s march last year, which was called the Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality, RPC organizers have created an online form for attendees in the community to express their opinions about how to shape messaging and direction for this year. That form is available here. “This is the People’s March,” RPC organizer Francesca R. Barjon said in a written statement. “We want any and every member of our queer and trans family to guide the direction of this march, thereby creating an event that can make a true impact on our lives and our capacity to thrive!” RPC organizers are underscoring the urgent crises impacting marginalized queer communities over the last year, including the ongoing murders...

LID Members Weigh Co-Endorsement or Runoff After Mayoral Forum

More than a dozen 2021 mayoral hopefuls participated in a three-day, four-part virtual forum hosted by the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn (LID) — but no clear-cut winner ran a... Show more

with the LGBTQ club’s endorsement. City Comptroller Scott Stringer and non-profit leader Dianne Morales tied for the most votes among the whopping 14 candidates who appeared at the forum, which included discussions surrounding housing, policing, the coronavirus pandemic, LGBTQ issues, and other topics. Club members are planning to reconvene March 1 to finalize plans for a runoff. [EDITOR’S NOTE 3/1/21: Following LID’s meeting on March 1, club president Jared Arader told Gay City News the club will vote on March 4 to decide whether to co-endorse Stringer and Morales. If members opt against a co-endorsement, there will be a runoff between Stringer and Morales.] “I do really think it speaks to the nature of this race given the number of candidates and difference of opinions,” Arader told Gay City News after the first vote took place on February 26. LGBTQ candidates who joined the forum, which took place from February 23 through February 25, were Carlos Menchaca, who is Brooklyn’s first out gay lawmaker, former Department of Veterans’ Services commissioner Loree Sutton, and non-binary rapper Paperboy Prince. Out gay Brooklyn Councilmember Carlos MenchacaFacebook/Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn Housing was among the top issues discussed throughout the course of the forum. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan boiled down his housing approach to preserving both NYCHA and affor...

LGBTQ Advocates Protest Chick-fil-A in Jackson Heights

A small group of community members gathered outside of the newly-opened Chick-fil-A in Jackson Heights on February 25 to condemn the chain restaurant’s history of supporting anti-LGBTQ ... Show more

ups. Daniel Puerto, an out LGBTQ community activist and co-founder of Love Wins Food Pantry, said it was important to shed light on Chick-fil-A’s “history of discrimination” against the LGBTQ community, given their arrival at 40-27 82nd Street, which opened a day earlier on February 24. “We are in Jackson Heights, home to a large number of LGBTQ communities [and] home to a large number of trans and gender non-conforming people, and today we are here to not only question how was Chick-fil-A welcomed to our community, but to also remind our neighbors about businesses like these so that we can be an informed consumers,” Puerto said. LGBTQ advocacy groups have long fought the Atlanta-based chain restaurant for not only donating millions to organizations with a history of anti-LGBTQ practices, like Salvation Army and Fellowship of Christian Athletes, but also for its CEO Dan Cathy’s comments opposing same-sex marriage. The outrage has been evident across New York City, as well. In 2019, the Mets took criticism for plastering Chick-fil-A ads on the foul pole at Citi Field, and that same year, the Yankees’ minor league affiliate in Staten Island also came under fire for a partnership with Chick-fil-A — and the team wound up scrapping the deal altogether. Also that year, Chick-fil-A — a multibillion dollar chain popular for its fried chicken sandwiches and customer service — announced a shift in their donations...