LETTER: Homeless 2SLGBTQIA+ community needs support

BradfordToday and InnisfilToday welcome letters to the editor at (email protected) or through the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for authorship verification, not for publication). The following letter is a response to a column in The Lighthouse published on the OrilliaMatters affiliate site on May 20.

The Lighthouse Shelter provides much needed support to those in our community who are unsheltered and we appreciate all that you do for our community. However, I was deeply disappointed to see that in their list of community partners, an essential key partner in the Gilbert Center was not included.

The lack of inclusiveness of homeless organizations is highly problematic and unsafe, especially given the over-representation of homeless 2SLGBTQIA+ people locally and elsewhere.

From the Corporation Mortgage and Housing Canada website: “Many members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community continue to face discrimination, especially when accessing a safe, appropriate and affordable place to call home.

According to raincityhousing.org/what-we-do/lgbtq2s-youth-housing, “2SLGBTQIA+ youth can be the most vulnerable members of the community. As a result, their housing challenges are often the greatest. According to the most recent research, Approximately 10% of the Canadian population identifies as 2SLGBTQIA+. According to some estimates, 2SLGBTQIA+ youth make up 25 to 40% of homeless youth in Canada.

As the mother of a gay son who has struggled with homelessness, mental illness and substance abuse, I know firsthand the harassment he has endured from the homeless community in our area and the discrimination he has faced in accessing services of addiction. In fact, someone went so far as to tell him that he needed to stop being gay and that his problems would work themselves out.

When my son came out as a young gay man, our home was a safe haven for his 2SLGBTQIA+ friends to hang out and sometimes stay until they could find safe housing after their families disowned them.

Partners like the Gilbert Center and the Triangle Program at the Metropolitan Community Church provide life-saving support to youth in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

My son didn’t make it and died last year.

I urge The Lighthouse Shelter to seek partnerships with these 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations and others to support the most vulnerable youth in our community. From personal experience, it really is a matter of life or death.

Linda Reid
Barry