Is Proposition N Homophobic?

So we all know the problem, like when we were growing up we never tried to
run away from home because we were queer, but to reiterate:

"Data on homeless and runaway youth were collected through a consortium of
agencies, including one that provides services to a high percentage of
gay- lesbian-, and bisexual-identified youth. Gay and bisexual male youth
appear to be at increased risk for both homelessness and suicide. Gay male
street youth may have been forced out of their homes because of their
sexual orientation, and are more likely to engage in survival sex
(prostitution) than their nongay male counterparts. In one sample, 53% of
gay-identified street youths had attempted suicide, compared with 32% of a
cohort of street youths that included both gay and nongay youths.
Prejudice, discrimination, and homophobia are still rampant in society
today; these factors contribute to a multiplicity of problems that face
the young person who is gay." - G. Kruks, pp. 515-8, Nov. 1991, _Journal
of Adolescent Health_.

So here in San Francisco, the supposed Gay Safe Haven. Gavin Newsom wants
to take away cash from single homeless folks; gee, who are most single
homeless folks? By most estimates around 40% of homeless youths are queer
(see http://www.capitalxtra.on.ca/queercapital/cx103/cx103_hosthome.htm).
So Gavin wants to take some money away from the queer homeless folks and
replace it with that of services. Yet for most queer people life in a
shelter can be a living hell:

"Many gay homeless people, like T. Britton, feel that fighting the shelter
system won't do any good. He says, 'If I had filed complaints I felt it
just would've made matters worse for me. For good or ill I guess I
generally "pass" as a straight person.' The resulting repression
multiplies the trauma and isolation people already feel when they are
homeless exponentially."
http://www.realchangenews.org/pastarticles/features/articles/twice_the_target_mar00.html

Other shelters run by Christians and other religious charities teach
rampant homophobic theology in exchange for a warm place to sleep. Gavin
cites the success of such places as New York city where former Mayor
Guiliani invoked similiar Care Not Cash proposals as remedies for
Homelessness. Yet, even the New York Times has faulted such policies as
lacking the will to protect LGBTQ homeless folks
(http://www.datalounge.com/datalounge/news/record.html?record=3204).

The sad equation is that this Proposition N, the Care Not Cash initiative,
will take away the money awarded via General Assistance to homeless single
people (all homeless queers are single in the state of California) and
replace those protections with promises of shelter and support. Yet, it
has been established that queer folk do not go to shelters due to rampant
homophobia, thus even more vulnerable members of the queer community will
be at risk as runaway queer youths, young adults and others turn to street
prostitution (survival sex), and other dangerous routes of survival in the
streets.

We must organize to defeat Prop. N. It is Homophobic and anti-Gay.

Get involved at http://www.nomorehomelessness.org

real life stories:
http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/Alerts/States/NewYork/homeless.html
http://www.gayhealth.com/iowa-robot/?record=766
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/11/29/gay.runaways.ap/
http://mm.race.tripod.com/homeless_queer_youth.htm