We are pleased to announce that Ivis Whitright's "Next on the Agenda: House Our Siblings" has been selected as the winner of the 2020 Thought Tools Timpani Essay Competition.
Next on the Queer Agenda:
House Our Siblings
by Ivis Whitright
12/1/2020
Recently we have seen a surge in LGBT representation in politics, entertainment, and social media. As these identities attract attention, there has been a significant increase in acceptance of gay people and binary trans people. While this acceptance benefits wealthy and middle-class people in these communities, there are still thousands of queer people who are homeless because of families that reject them, landlords that have biases against them, and employers who underpay them. Worst of all, while these queer people survive on the streets, they are discriminated against by homeless shelters and other aid organizations. As a nonbinary and bisexual white person who is living in other people’s homes, I urge the privileged queer community to direct more resources to helping homeless queer people, especially trans people of color.
According to an April 2020 study by UCLA, LGBT people make up an estimated 4.5 percent of the U.S. population, but between 20 and 45 percent of homeless youth identify as part of the LGBTQ community. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people who were turned out of their homes for being transgender has increased, and resources for homeless queer people have diminished as organizations shut their doors.
While those of us with homes and financial stability tweet about being wrongly called “sir” or “ma’am,” our less fortunate siblings depend on strangers for food. Our struggles for respect still matter, but we must remember that our community includes thousands of homeless people who need us. Those most in need are homeless trans people of color.
According to the most recent U.S. Transgender Survey, trans women of color have a homeless rate of between 35 and 59 percent, with African American trans women having the highest rate. The streets are a dangerous place for a trans person of color; several cities permit police officers to detain people in public solely because they appear transgender, which can lead to time spent in jail when bails are too high. On top of these dangers, trans women of color face the highest murder rate in the U.S. While cis people can stay the night in a homeless shelter, trans people are turned away from shelters that discriminate against them and house people based on legal sex. According to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, 63 percent of the transgender homeless population is unsheltered.
This injustice is dangerous and immediate. When we ask for cishet people to use inclusive language, to remember the queer population, we are building a culture that values queer people, but our siblings are starving and sleeping on the streets now. While we speak up and lobby for laws against discrimination, we need to take direct action as well. We need to establish homeless shelters that take in transgender people, safe houses for LGBTQIA+ youth, and access to HIV medication and hormones. We are stronger together, so let’s use our privilege to save our community.
Ivis Whitright (xe/xem/xyr) is a nonbinary artist studying Literary Arts at Brown University and experimenting with where art blurs and illuminates identity. Follow xem on Twitter @ivis_the_writer.
Copyright © 2020 Ivis Whitright
