Cyndi Lauper to open NYC Permanet LGBT Homeless Housing

HARLEM — Cyndi Lauper is helping establish Manhattan's first permanent housing for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in Harlem.

Many homeless LGBT youth face violence in mainstream shelters, forcing them to rely on a small network of gay-friendly facilities, advocates say. The True Colors Residence, set to open in winter 2011, will provide young people between 18 and 24 with a place to live while helping them get back on their feet.
“Kids are coming out in greater numbers as they see themselves accepted and represented on TV and in movies, but they’re still being kicked out of their homes or running away and living on the streets," Lauper said in a statement.

“We need to make sure we’re taking care of them. This is the next generation of the LGBT community.”

 The residence, which will be built on W. 154th Street near Frederick Douglas Boulevard, was the brainchild of Lauper, her publicist Lisa Barbaris, and Colleen Jackson, executive director of the West End Intergenerational Residence, an Upper West Side facility geared toward young families and older low-income adults.

The 80s pop singer, known for her hits "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "True Colors," will donate money for the facility through her True Colors Fund, is an honorary board member and is championing and promoting it, Jackson said.

"There are no permanent residences [in Manhattan], and LGBT youth make up 40 percent of the runaway and homeless population, maybe even more," said Jackson. "It's outrageous."

There are between 15,000 and 20,000 homeless youth in New York City, according to estimates from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Roughly 3,000 to 8,000 of them are LGBT, or comprising 20 to 40 percent homeless youth in the city, the Task Force said.

Currently, there are four emergency shelters and two transitional living shelters that house youths for up to two years. The True Colors Residence will provide young people with a permanent residence.
The six-story building will contain 30 studio apartments, a communal space, a library and computer room. It's expected to cost roughly $11 million. Residents will sign a year-long Section 8 lease, and pay rent according to their income.

Most of the funding came from the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, with additional funds from several city, state and corporate sources.

“New York is an expensive city for most people, much less young people with no support,” said Theresa Nolan, director of Green Chimneys, which runs programs for LGBT youth, including a West Harlem facility that provides temporary housing. She said most youth programs only accept people up to age 21, "so a lot of people fall out of youth housing when they’re just getting the hang of living independently and they’re most vulnerable.

"[True Colors] is affordable, and they get a little bit of support," she said. "That’s priceless for young people.”


Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20100406/central-harlem/cyndi-lauper-open-shelter-for-homeless-lgbt-youth-harlem##ixzz1WEWMFwzP

Secretly

F*ck H8 newest video

Love this idea a bunch of straign muscle boys posing near naked for gay bois--what is not to LOVE !!  There is the F-bomb quite a bit but who the hell cares when there is so much eye-candy!  $10 like the ad says go get your calender today!
Making of Video: FCKH8 "STR8 AGAINST H8" 2011 Calendar from FCKH8.com on Vimeo.

Anti-gay bullying leads to another tragic teen suicide

RITTMAN, Ohio — Another young life lost to anti-gay bullying.


     Nicholas Kelo Jr. knew what it was like to be relentlessly bullied, his family said, and it may have been what persuaded him to pry open a safe inside his home on Feb. 23, and remove the gun that killed him, reports the Akron Beacon Journal.  He was 13 years old. It is unknown as to whether or not Nick was gay, but that did not stop his bullies or their attacks.

”It had been going on for years,” Jacqueline Kelo [Nick's mother] said. ”We would talk and he would say [of the bullies] that they were not worth his time.”  Nick played football in middle school but gave up the sport this year to participate in high school band.

The switch, Jacqueline Kelo reasoned, resulted in swelling rumors. Some, she said, wrongly assumed that a kid who would prefer to play the tenor sax rather than tossing a pigskin must be gay.  “After that, it [the bullying] spiraled out of control,” she said.

One such incident allegedly happened on a school bus following a football game, explained the mother of another Rittman teenager who said her son is also a victim of bullying. During the incident, Nick allegedly became the victim of an older student who was “glicking” — forcibly spitting on him. Jacqueline Kelo knew something was bothering her son when he came home, but the eighth-grader refused to share the details — telling her that he would handle it himself. The parents became aware of it only after their son’s death.  Jacqueline Kelo said it didn’t surprise her that her son kept his pain to himself. Nick viewed himself as his mother’s protector.

“He was the man of the house,” the single mother said.   Nick’s death is being investigated as a likely suicide, according to Rittman police.  Nick recently scored 152 on an IQ test, which is classified as superior intelligence. He had a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and was an avid inventor, creating both a waffle fork to remove hot food from a toaster and an incinerator trash can. Nine of Nick’s organs were collected and donated.
News of Nick’s death comes just days after the White House held a high-visibility conference on bullying prevention, with the President and First Lady calling on parents, teachers, students, and communities to address the problem together.

For those who read this blog this story , which i just read about, Rittman is about 20 miles from my home.  I was beside myself, scik to my stomach with the last of the anti'gay teen bullying but with it in my backyard, if you will,makesme madder than hell.  My heart goes out to this singlemother, and it is just breaking for her.  We as the gya and gay supportive community need to do something for this woman immediately as well as for our gay, questioning or just plain bullied for being gay even if they are not.

Straight mat at George Washington University gay bashed

A senior at George Washington University was charged in D.C. superior court Monday with beating another student while calling him antigay slurs, according to the school’s student newspaper, The GW Hatchet.

Metropolitan Police Department officers arrested senior Ross Richardson early Sunday morning in Ivory Tower after he kicked and punched a fellow student while saying, “You fucking fag.”

The student’s name was not released because the Hatchet has a policy of not naming assault victims.

The victim, who is straight, told authorities he had never met his attacker before the assault. He was rushed to GW Hospital after the attack with significant head trauma, including bleeding in his brain.


“I'm extremely surprised that at such a progressive school such a hate crime would happen," the victim told the Hatchet. "I'm even more surprised that it would happen to a straight, white male."

The assault is being classified as a hate crime, according to the University Police Department. The victim told police he has only scattered memories of what happened in the hours before the assault, likely the result of his severe injury.

Two students witnessed the assault and sat with the victim until police arrived. The victim spent two nights in the hospital and was expected to return to classes Friday.

From the White House Blog---Bullying Prevention questions

Answering Your Questions on Bullying Prevention


Posted by Sarah Bernard on March 08, 2011 at 01:43 PM EST

Every day, thousands of kids, teens, and young adults around the country are bullied. Estimates are that nearly one-third of all school-aged children are bullied each school year - upwards of 13 million students. Students involved in bullying are more likely to have challenges in school, to abuse drugs and alcohol, and to have health and mental health issues. If we fail to address bullying we put ourselves at a disadvantage for increasing academic achievement and making sure all of our students are college and career ready.



On Thursday, the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention will bring together communities from across the nation who have been affected by bullying as well as those who are taking action to address it. As part of the agenda, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett will host a policy panel with issue experts including Catherine Bradshaw of Johns Hopkins University, George Sugai from the University of Connecticut, Susan Swearer-Napolitano from the University of Nebraska, as well as the Cyberbullying Research Center's Justin Patchin.



Would you like Valerie to pose a question on your behalf?



Send us your question here, or at Facebook.com/WhiteHouse to ask your question as a comment on our wall. Valerie Jarrett will pose as many of them as she can during the Experts Panel on Thursday morning. Tune in to watch at 11:00am EST at whitehouse.gov/live.

Newest Poetry

This came last night while trying to finish reading "The Lonely Well" by Radclyffe Hall


From our faraway childhood homes
Raised in love and glory
From the womb we came
Born this way
No choosing of our own, but divine plan

What knew we of difference
Of the branding in our hearts
The searing of our minds
That mad us different in our love
When were we really aware of it
Can we remember when we found the words

I am sure we can easily remember
When others saw the branding of our hearts
The voices of hatred began
During recess, on the ride home on the bus
Your a faggot, sissy queer boy
Does you mother know your a queen

The scars are numerous
The burden a heavy weight to bear
It did get only worse
Others moved away cutting all ties
The past forgotten

Moving to big cities
New York City, Cleveland, San Fransisco
Palm Springs, Washington D.C.
Our trip through the rainbow
To become friends of Dorothy
Filling our lives with Pride

Some took action, became involved
Stonewall, ACT UP, Queer Nation
Others ran for office and held seats
G-d bless you Harvey Milk
Drag queens who threw bricks
Our brothers fighting for research

Some of us destroyed ourselves
To many trips to drown our sorrows
The bars, the booze, the pills
Others who had endless parades
Of men in our beds needing no names
No questions asked no answers needed

Amidst all the rampant sex
Of fearless faceless frenzy fucking
A demon entered our lives
The senseless butcher
My brothers, my brothers all dead
Our passions fire died

Regan said nothing for years
One complex drug was all we had
The brave, the strong, the beautiful
Became the withering, the dead, the lost
Our Ozian cities hit the hardest
No mere Emerald City dream anymore

Nearly thirty years have passed
Our history at times forgotten
Brothers stories take to the grave
Locked in wooden caskets
Buried under the Western castle
Was it our wickedness this we caused

Have we forgot the price
We have painfully paid to be
Who we simply are
Bisexual Boys
Lesbian Ladies
Transsexual Folk

Gay is more than happy
This mush is true
Our history full and rich
Of great joy and success
Tremendous loss and unspeakable pain
The lessons we have learned

The story we MUST share
I urge you with all my might
Be vocal, be diligent, be heard
Hide no more in our closets
It will get better
The fight has only just begun

So much to do
To be accepted
To fully and freely love
To make the difference
For those that follow
It's all we can leave behind

There's no place like home
Home is where the heart is
There's no place like home
Such a place does exist
There's no place like home
Come on Toto, let's go HOME

Teenager Death; Friends Say Bullying May be to Blame

MILTONA, Minn. - The news of a high school student's death and rumored suicide began circling social networking sites Monday morning, after the news began spreading that 18-year-old Jefferson High School student Lance Lundsten had died over the weekend.

Around 10 p.m. Saturday the Douglas County Sheriff's Office responded to an emergency call at the Lundsten's residence in Miltona.

When officers arrived, they discovered 18-year-old Lance Lundsten needing emergency medical care. Lundsten was transported to the Douglas County Hospital where he later died.

The Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that the cause of Lundsten's death was yet to be determined. Authorities had been working with the Douglas County Medical Examiner's Office to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death.

In an interview Wednesday morning, Douglas County Medical Examiner Dr. Mark Spanbauer said the preliminary autopsy report showed the teen did not die from an enlarged heart.

The teen's heart was slightly enlarged, but that finding was a secondary finding to an undetermined cause, according to Spanbauer.

Spanbauer said what actually caused Lundsten's heart to slightly swell was not yet known, as the final autopsy report was still in progress.

"He was a small young man. His heart showed slight swelling," Spanbauer said. "It was slightly enlarged. This was a secondary finding."

Spanbauer was waiting for the results of Lundsten's toxicology report before stating an official cause of death.

According to his Facebook page, Lundsten was openly gay. On a Facebook memorial page in Lundsten's honor, friends said that Lundsten had been bullied at school for his sexual orientation. Some students who knew Lundsten believed the bullying may have led to his death.

Another Jefferson High School student started a Facebook group in direct response to Lundsten's death called the Jefferson Anti-Bully Coalition.  Its founder, Morgan Hauer posted on the Jefferson Anti-Bully Coalition page Sunday night:

"So everyone, i may have started this group, but it really means nothing unless we take action. words, speeches and petitions can get us far, but the only real way to stand up to bullying is to stop bullying other people, stand up for those being bullied and let authoritative figures know whats going on. without you, this whole idea is pointless and a very beloved schoolmate will have died in vain.  Don't let that happen, we owe at least that much to Lance and everyone else who is, was, or will ever be bullied.  Thank you, Group Founder, Morgan Hauer."
 
Since this story's initial report, a gay recent graduate of Jefferson High School student told KSAX-TV about his experiences, and how he was bullied at the school and no one listened.


"Bullying is a huge issue, particularly with the youth in our country now," Facilitator of the Diversity Resource Action Alliance Shari Maloney said. "I think because we're in central Minnesota, and we aren't as diverse as some of the larger Metropolitan areas are, someone who is different maybe draws more attention and it's not always positive."

Maloney said she works everyday to make Alexandria a more accepting place for community members and visitors. She said she has seen improvement, but there is still a long way to go.

"I think we are a welcoming community, but I think we are also a very traditional community as well," Maloney said. "As the world changes, I'm not sure if we're changing."

In a letter to staff and media, District 206 Superintendent Terry Quist responded to the teen's death, and the  accusations of alleged bullying at the school. Senator Al Franken discusses legislation to protect students from being bullied in the classroom because of their sexual orientation.

Gay teen says 'Stop Bullying me or I'll SUE!!!!"

Gay teen activist Caleb Laieski has notified officials at every school in Arizona that they must put a stop to bullying, or else he plans to file a lawsuit. The Arizona Republic reports that the Phoenix-area teen e-mailed a letter to more than 5,000 school administrators and elected officials in early December.


“The letters warn school officials that they must institute policies specifically prohibiting gay harassment by students, teachers and administrators,” reports the Republic. “Schools that fail to stop bullying will encounter ‘legal ramifications.’”
Laieski, 15, founded Gays and Lesbians United Against Discrimination two years ago. Prior to making his demand of every school in Arizona, he successfully prompted the Dysart Unified School District, where he had endured antigay bullying, to revise its handbook to include language that prohibits bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Now pursuing his high school equivalency diploma, Laieski runs his organization with a friend, Casey Cameron of Chicago.
Thus far, the Republic reports that the letter campaign has generated responses from only a handful of officials, most of whom have not expressed plans to take further steps. The Arizona School Boards Association, whose handbook recommends policies and language to many districts, plans to release new policy advisories this month, but a spokeswoman would not say whether antigay bullying was included among the revisions.


On a personal note, i have to say its about g-d  damn time somebody did something like this!!!!  They either comply or pay, good for you Caleb1

LGBT Homeless NYC Funds Cut by 50%

Advocates for homeless LGBT youth are outraged over New York City’s decision to slash funding for drop-in shelters and street outreach by 50 percent next year.

Citing high rates of homeless LGBT teenager suicide, drug addiction and prostitution; representatives from the Ali Forney Center and the Bronx Community Pride House attended a City Council Finance Committee hearing on Monday, Dec. 6, to emphasize the need for these programs, which the City Council’s discretionary funds currently provide.

"The main program facing cuts is the shelter bed program, which disproportionately affects LGBT youth, who comprise one-third of homeless kids sleeping on the street tonight" said City Councilmember Member Lew Fidler [D-Brooklyn]. "We have to keep hope as we go into the holiday season that no one would do anything that cruel..., but it is not going to be an easy fight."

City spokesperson Andrew R. Doba said the cuts will not have a significant impact on the number of shelter beds. "Services for runaway and homeless youth have been held harmless from budget cuts over the eight most recent budget reductions," he said. "However, due to a combination of city and state reductions for FY11 and FY12, DYCD [Department of Youth and Community Development] has made the difficult decision to reduce Runaway and Homeless Youth Services funding. This reduction was proportionally less than other reductions in the DYCD portfolio-less than seven percent of the total RHY funding, and will not impact our crisis shelters or transitional independent living programs at all."

Fidler pointed to the recent Commission on LGBTQ Runaway and Homeless Youth report that confirmed the need to expand street outreach, noting teens driven from their homes due to emotional, physical, and sexual abuse were often not trusting of adults in drop-in centers. Because the same people who provide drop-in services and street outreach are the ones who provide shelter beds, Fidler said both programs need to be maintained.

"If you’re gonna talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk," he added. "They are doing the opposite, and that is going to have an enormous impact on these shelter beds.  Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center, agreed.

"They are talking about how Cyndi Lauper recently lit up the Empire State Building to announce the campaign..., but that doesn’t mean a hill of beans to a kid who can’t have a sandwich at a drop-in center, or see a doctor, or take a shower, a kid who is stranded on the street with nothing," he said.

Ali Forney faced a $500,000 budget gap last year, which Siciliano filled by reducing his staff’s health care coverage and education as opposed to cutting money from youth programs. According to Siciliano, 25 percent of the youth at the drop-in center test positive for HIV-more than all 10 homeless drop-in centers in the city. Sixty percent of these young people have also attempted suicide. "And that’s with support," noted Siciliano. "What will that mean if they are just out there on their own?"

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has also spoken out against the cuts.  "While I recognize the need to balance the budget, I absolutely oppose doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable youth," she said. "We can-and must-do better than this for our children. I have called on the city to look harder to find alternative savings, and I have presented a number of alternative measures that I urge the city to adopt in lieu of these cuts. My colleagues and I will fight to prevent these cuts from taking place."

Dirk McCall, executive director of the Bronx Community Pride Center, said the current proposal would slash his organization’s budget by 90 percent. "These are the most vulnerable youth on the streets; it’s appalling," said McCall. "We have youth who need referrals to shelter beds, anger management, HIV medication referrals, emotional support. For the LGBT kids of the Bronx and Northern Manhattan, this is where they go. It’s really difficult to see this happen, but I have full faith it will be overturned."

In light of the proposed budget cuts, youth advocates also trained a gimlet eye on the Commission for LGBTQ Runaway and Homeless Youth that Mayor Michael Bloomberg established in Oct. 2009.
"When the mayor announced this commission, two weeks before election last year, I thought, ’Is this the same guy I fight with every June to put half this money back?’ How interesting that he found God at end of October," said Fidler. "So they held all of these wonderful forums on LGBT youth, and right of the middle of that they announce this cut. Does anyone see anything hypocritical in that?  Siciliano agreed.

"They announced the formation of the commission two weeks before the election...and then is going to turn around and endanger them by reducing what’s already available," he said "If they drop those programs, these kids have nothing but... total abject suffering on the streets, prostitution, and drug dealing. The people who are responsible for protecting children have to take that responsibility seriously. I really question the competence of anyone who would make a decision like this."  McCall was more sanguine about the outcome.

"I don’t think the mayor started this commission knowing he would have to make these budget cuts I think he started the commission with the best of intentions, and definitely put a lot of energy into it, spoke up for it, circulated the report, and coordinated work with other city agencies," he said. "But these are the most vulnerable youth on street; it’s appalling. There have to be other funds utilized to protect homeless LGBT youth."

He said he would like to see the mayor baseline funds for these programs to avoid annual budget battles. Siciliano also called upon LGBT New Yorkers to stand up for homeless youth, saying he would pitch tents at City Hall Park and camp out "to show these kids their lives mean something to us" if necessary. On Monday, Dec. 6, a dozen additional members of the LGBTQ Runaway and Homeless Youth Commission had signed on to a letter to Bloomberg and Commissioner Jeanne Mullgrav urging them to not to cut funding.

"I am not one of these guys to say we should spend money we don’t have, nor can we raise the property tax any more," said Fidler. "I get that we need to cut spending, but is this seriously what a civilized society does: cut the funding of kids sleeping on subway grates? That is truly outrageous."

Doba stressed the city acknowledges the importance of these funds, but Siciliano, who spoke with EDGE on the anniversary of the death of the gay teenager after which his organization is named, remained adamant.
"I fought and fought to make New York City safer for gay kids," he said. "I didn’t sit on this commission and do all that work as co-chair to see it go back to how it was."

Homosexual Concentration Survivor

This is not going to be an easy video to watch but I felt very deeply that you should watch this.  It is with Rudolf Brazda who is believed to be the VERY LAST of the gay concentration camps survivors of World War II. 

This story is very dear to my heart since I lost two great aunts in the horrors of the Holocaust who were Jewish. Our family who left Europe before the war broke out convert to Catholic and then in the 1950's to Protestant.  Our family could not at the time get those families out.

This is his story--the only homosexual story I have ever heard about the Holocaust.  Least WE NEVER FORGET.

NO CHARGES to be made in Bullying Case and death!!

Police in Tehachapi, California, will not pursue charges against students who taunted and bullied 13-year old gay student Seth Walsh, who hung himself nine days ago and was taken off of life support yesterday.

"Several of the kids that we talked to broke down into tears," said police chief Jeff Kermode. "They had never expected an outcome such as this." Other students remain in shock over Walsh's tragic death, and seem to understand that homophobic bullying played a role in Walsh's suicide, yet that doesn't mean they'll break what prevention counselor Daryl Thiesen calls the "culture of silence" that surrounds bullying.
"You're told you shouldn't be a snitch or tattler," said Thiesen.

Walsh's death comes one day after Texas teen Asher Brown shot himself over anti-gay bullying. These incidents are not isolated, America. This isn't a gay problem, nor are these stories just about nasty brats.
We're experiencing an anti-gay bullying epidemic, and one that needs to be addressed, for the aforementioned culture of silence isn't just killing kids, it's killing our nation's future.
We should all heed the Walsh family's statement on the subject: "A negative action ... by adults and children ... will not solve or help anyone! Violence is not the answer! Please everyone, be kind and love one another!"

I've included a video made by Walsh's family and friends, AFTER THE JUMP. Be warned, however, that the video will yield tears. So, if you don't want to be puffy at work, wait until you get home.

What I really see when I look in the mirror.......

A blog I read a while back spoke of what we see ourselves as. What we see in the mirror, when we look at ourselves. The things I am sure no one else sees in us but us. It can be painful, emotional, spiritual and above all else it can all be a bunch of lies.

While going through some things today I found some old pictures of me as a little kid which is what led me to do today's post. The picture off to the left is of me at six years old which was 1972. That little boy is who I see in the mirror every single time I spend more than five minutes looking at myself.

For me it is very painful to the very core of my being. I grew up in farm country in Geauga County, Ohio and we as they say were "dirt poor" the son of a nineteen year old mother in her second marriage and also the son of an abusive father. A child who knew at the time of this photograph that he was different than other boys but wasn't sure exactly what it was.

A little boy who could write and draw with both hands until he was in kindergarten, when his teacher tied his left hand behind his back to his chair to force him to be right handed. Little boys need to only use one hand you know, and their right hands so they are in their right minds. A little boy who was deathly afraid of the dark. A little boy who couldn't fall asleep without his teddy bear. A little boy who had an awful lisp till he was eleven.

A little boy who desperately wanted "Mrs. Beasley" the doll and Barbie. A little boy who used dollies and pillow cases to drape "clothes" over his stuffed toys so they could play dress up and he could make believe they were all filthy rich. A little boy whose father was never home when he was awake until he eight years old, because he worked so many double shifts.

A little boy whose favorite play theme was "beauty queen". He would get his radio flyer wagon and put a cement block in it and then would spend all morning gathering these little tiny white flowers that grew on weeds that looked like miniature daisies. The wagon would be overflowing with them all but the seat and after lunch with an old blanket and a broken plastic flower pot would play "Rose Parade Queen" and wave to the invisible throng of loving fans adoring him.

The little boy who had to be "mommas big man" and help with everything she did so "daddy" would be happy and became in the process "the perfect housewife". The little boy who feared his father so that he NEVER hung around him. A little boy who most nights cried himself to sleep.

The little boy who got one pair of shoes at the school year and they had to last till June, the rest of the time he went barefoot. Cardboard in the bottoms if they wore out. New clothes for school but ALWAYS from Goodwill and the rare dress shirt from Montgomery Wards in Cuyahoga Falls. If they wore then his momma would sew patches on them, till they were nearly rags.

The little boy who was told he could do anything if he tried hard enough or worked hard enough but never really ever given the confidence to try to be something more than his was. "People don't get better than what they are, they just survive somehow.

It is what I see, sad thing is that little boy as a man is still afraid of the dark, still sleeps with a teddy bear, still is afraid of his father and still has a distant relationship with him. That man is afraid of any confrontation, rocking the boat and especially of not being "liked". There are still nights he cries himself to sleep. That man is still the insecure six year old boy.

That man is me---I can't believe I said all of that. Maybe I needed to. Maybe I needed to say it to let it go. Maybe now by being in school again I can become the man I want to be. With that said, that will be tomorrow's post..... the man I want to be.

Until next time I am so glad we had this time together.