GLBTQQI

GLBTQQI = gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex

This is a topic that I think about frequently for various reasons, but have been thinking about a lot more recently for two main reasons: 1) we had an AMAZING training on it during my AmeriCorps orientation, and 2) 40%, yes 40%, of homeless youth identify with one of the GLBTQQI communities.  It is a topic that I have been wanting to write about for a bit, but I am not sure exactly what I want to say or where I want this post to go so I have been holding off.  Also I have a wide group of friends and people who are reading this that have an equally wide view on this topic.  But whatever, I am just going to write what I have been thinking about and I'm sure I will make some mistakes in some of my language and I'm sure some of you may not agree with what I am saying.  Regardless of all of that, I think it is important to even just start a dialogue and think and talk about it.

Ok, so at this training that I had, we were talking about how there are four main continuums.  Most of the world doesn't see them as continuums, but instead one or the other, black and white, two sided only.  The continuums are 1) sex 2) gender 3) gender presentation 4) sexual preference.

So sex is basically what you were born with biologically, a man or a woman.  There's also 2% of the population where it is inconclusive when they are born which organs they have, known as intersex.  In this case, the doctors immediately take the baby away to surgery WITHOUT the parents' consent.  They do some kind of surgery to make the baby fit into our binary system.  Doing surgery on a newborn without consent from the mother whom the baby just came out of is never ok, I don't care what kind of surgery it is.

Ok, and then gender is male and female, masculine and feminine.  It is how someone identifies themself.  For some people, their gender does not necessarily match up with their sex.  Some people are ok with it not matching up, others take hormones and become part of the transgender community, others have surgery and become part of the transsexual community.  And there are also people that would say and feel as though they do not fit into either category of male or female and would land somewhere in the middle of that continuum.  I could talk about gender for a LONG time.  To some extent, it is a social construction, but also I do think that there are things that are different between men and women besides just their sexual organs.

Alright, and then there is gender presentation.  This has a lot to do with the clothes you wear and the things you do and how you outwardly express your gender.  For a lot of people, this does not necessarily match up with their sex or their gender.  There are MANY people that would fall in the middle of this continuum, especially with so many people wearing jeans and t-shirts, there is so much androgyny.  This would also be where cross dressers fit in.  Unlike the trans community, they may not feel like their gender does not match up with their sex, they just enjoy, for various reasons, dressing as the opposite sex/gender.

And lastly sexual preference.  This, as most people know, is basically who you are attracted to sexually and prefer to have sex with.  On the ends of the continuum would be gay and straight.  But there are so many in between that I won't even try to list them all.  This, for some people, has nothing to do with their sex, gender, or gender presentation.

This, along with many other things, is what we discussed at the training.  It was super insightful.  I had heard a lot of it before at previous trainings, but some of the terms were new to me, along with just the way the material was presented.  The biggest thing that I learned that stuck out to me the most was that 40% of homeless youth identify with the GLBTQQI community.  This is an extremely high percentage.  In all of America, an estimated 10% of people identify as GLBTQQI.  So I, being the sociologist that I am, wants to know why.  Why is this number dramatically higher in the homeless youth population?  Is it that their parents are kicking them out of the house?  Because if so, that is ridiculous.  A child should never be kicked out of their house by their parents for any reason.  Is there some other reason why this number is so high?  I guess it is similar to why their is a higher percentage of racial minorities that are homeless youth.  It is something that I have been thinking about.  No matter what your view on GLBTQQI, this is not ok.  I guess sociologically I understand it and it is definitely not ok.  But knowing this number, what can I as a homeless youth service provider do?  What should I as a Christian do?  What can I as a sociologist do?

I feel like there is so much more to be said on this topic and a lot more stuff that is going through my head and has been going through my head.  But I will leave it at that for now.  Regardless of what your personal beliefs are, there is no reason why youth homelessness should affect the GLBTQQI community more.  There should not be a disproportionate number of GLBTQQI, or any other community for that matter, that are homeless.