By Zach Childree
DETROIT-
Last Friday, members of the Campaign to End AIDS gathered outside Detroit City Hall to draw attention to the plight of homeless youth.
Alfredo Smith, a spokesman for the group, said dealing with homelessness among LGBT youth plays a big role in HIV prevention. "Youth are the future of the city," he said. "Without housing, youth are more likely to drop out of school and more likely to be involved in risky behavior that can lead to new HIV infections."
Smith said too often, young people are kicked out of home after they come out. "A lot of homeless youth go into prostitution and drug trafficking," Smith said. "And if they need some place to live, they aren't going to care if their 'john' tells them they don't have to wear a condom."
In Detroit, Smith said, there are more than 18,000 homeless people. More than half of the youth who are homeless are also LGBT.
One of the demonstrators, Autumn Mays, is familiar with the struggles LGBT youth face. Mays is a transgender woman and she's facing eviction. She worried that she may end up back at a homeless shelter soon. She held up a sign Friday and chanted "No Housing? No Future!"
Mays said she hoped the community would come together to fight for more shelters for homeless youth. "I would like increased funding and more stability in how it's spent," Mays said. "We also would like to see rehabilitation of city buildings for homeless shelters."
As the demonstrators chanted and passed out flyers and t-shirts, people hurried past on their way to and from work. Some drivers honked their horns as a show of support.
George Montgomery, the chairperson for the Campaign to End AIDS LGBTQQI Youth Group, said not all of the responses were supportive.
"One lady told me that homeless youth are the scum of the earth and deserve to die," Montgomery said. "She said because they aren't working to get where she was."
Montgomery said these kinds of attitudes are reflective of the policies surrounding funding for homeless programs.
Smith said these kinds of attitudes come from ignorance, but the demonstration could help educate people about the plight of homeless youth in the city.
"What I'm hoping is that the people that walk by actually become part of the movement," Smith said. "We need more people to realize that these homeless youth are part of the future of our city."
