 Sojourners Magazine rejected a series of print ads by Believe Out Loud in May, an organization helping churches welcome LGBT people. When The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) contacted Sojourners about the issue, they said their primary focus was poverty/homelessness, war/peace, and the environment. GLAAD worked with Sojourners to understand that 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBT and now the magazine is running a full page ad for an organization serving LGBT homeless youth.
GLAAD reached out to Sojourners directly to clarify the advertising and editorial policy concerning LGBT issues. The representative from Sojourners reiterated to GLAAD that Sojourners wants to keep its primary focus on issues of poverty/homelessness, war/peace, and environment. GLAAD reminded Sojourners that LGBT people are involved in all those issues and that LGBT people are affected by those issues just as much as, if not more than, the general population. In the course of the conversation, GLAAD asked if an LGBT organization who worked in those primary focus areas would be able to place an ad. Sojourner’s said yes, and GLAAD took them at their word.
GLAAD then was in contact with staff members from the Ali Forney Center, an LGBT youth homeless shelter in New York City. The Ali Forney Center was instrumental presenting the stories of youth rejected from their homes to comedian Tracy Morgan after he went on an anti-gay rant during a June 3 comedy performance in Nashville, Tenn. Carl Siciliano, the executive director of the Ali Forney Center, expressed a strong interest in reaching out to evangelical and mainline protestant Christians with information about causes of youth homelessness, particularly the connection between family rejection and LGBT youth homelessness. He shared with us that one quarter of LGBT youth rejected by their parents become homeless and nearly 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBT (pdf). Using these statistics, GLAAD and the Ali Forney Center created a full-page, color ad that is currently running in the September/October issue of Sojourners magazine.
What does such an ad do? Several things. It tests the notion of whether Sojourners would really accept an ad placed by an LGBT-focused organization. It also demonstrates to the leadership and readership the overlap between the LGBT community and poverty, war/peace, and environment. It also continues the conversation about LGBT inclusion in the life of the church and the world. Through the conversations about the ad, Sojourners got more interested in the topic of youth homelessness (which falls under their “poverty” category). They intend to run a series of blog posts about LGBT youth homelessness that were inspired by the facts listed on the ad. These facts shed a harsh light on the theology of exclusion, which teaches parents to reject their children when they come out, increasing the likelihood of homelessness in LGBT youth. One of the blog posts will feature an interview with Carl Siciliano, where he will share his calling to work with LGBT homeless youth, and how we can best address and prevent youth from becoming homeless, namely by loving and accepting our children, no matter what.
The full article is available on GLAAD's blog. The church has the power to harm or to help in making the world a safer place for LGBT youth. According to The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force report Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth: An Epidemic of Homelessness (pdf): Family conflict is the primary cause of homelessness for all youth, LGBT or straight. Specifically, familial conflict over a youth’s sexual orientation or gender identity is a significant factor that leads to homelessness or the need for out-of-home care. According to one study, 50 percent of gay teens experienced a negative reaction from their parents when they came out and 26 percent were kicked out of their homes. Another study found that more than one-third of youth who are homeless or in the care of social services experienced a violent physical assault when they came out, which can lead to youth leaving a shelter or foster home because they actually feel safer on the streets (pg. 2).
A number of faith-based providers oppose legal and social equality for LGBT people, which raises serious questions about whether LGBT homeless youth can access services in a safe and nurturing environment. If an organization’s core belief is that homosexuality is wrong, that organization (and its committed leaders and volunteers) may not respect a client’s sexual orientation or gender identity and may expose LGBT youth to discriminatory treatment (pg. 5). Sojourners wrote about about their work with GLAAD on their blog. |
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