As many as 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBT, and a new Williams Institute study of youth shelters confirms this estimate. Between October 2011 and March 2012, 354 agencies completed surveys about their clients and found that about 40 percent of their homeless and non-homeless clients were LGBT (9 percent of whom identified as bisexual). About 30 percent of clients using housing-related services (like emergency shelter and transitional living programs) were LGBT.

What was particularly disconcerting about this study was how evident family rejection contributed to this disproportionate number of homeless LGBT youth:

Of all the agencies’ LGBT homeless clients, 68 percent have experienced family rejection and more than half (54 percent) experienced abuse in their family. Fortunately, nearly 80 percent of the service providers who work with clients under the age of 18 are doing family acceptance-related work, though only about half of providers working with older youth offer such resources.

The largest barriers to doing more work to reduce LGBT youth homelessness were insufficient state funding, insufficient local funding, and insufficient federal funding.

This data demands that more be done to support these agencies, but important than treating the symptom is treating the problem itself. Family rejection is devastating the lives of young people across the country, and very few organizations outside the Family Acceptance Project are addressing this issue. It’s all too easy to see LGBT homeless youth as an invisible population, but there is a very visible onslaught of anti-gay and anti-trans propaganda specifically targeting parents to raise their fears of the LGBT community. Rather than protecting children, the anti-gay efforts led by conservative evangelical Christians may very well be causing the exact kinds of child abuse that they blame LGBT people for.

Carl Siciliano

The White House has named Carl Siciliano as a “Champion of Change” for his work advocating on behalf of LGBT homeless youth. Siciliano is the founder and executive director of the Ali Forney Center, one of the nation’s few and largest shelters dedicated to create a safe refuge for LGBT young people with nowhere else to go. The champion responded to the announcement in a press release:

SICILIANO: It is thrilling that as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Ali Forney Center, we are also being recognized by the White House for our pioneering work on behalf of homeless LGBT youth. When we opened the Ali Forney Center, the challenges we faced were daunting; there was very little awareness of the plight of homeless LGBT youth, especially on the federal level, and it was difficult to obtain support for our work. I am very grateful to President Obama for recognizing the needs of homeless LGBT youthand incorporating their care into his vision of ending youth homelessness. I am also grateful to the White House for recognizing the quality, innovation, and  importance of the Ali Forney Center, which is a testament to all of the individuals who have served on the board, staff and as volunteers.

Because of family rejection, rates of LGBT youth homelessness are disturbingly high: as many as 40 percent of all homeless youth identify as gay or trans. Just this week, Cyndi Lauper launched the “Forty To None” campaign to add to the good work Siciliano and others are already doing to address this crisis. Unfortunately, efforts like the Ali Forney Center can only address the symptom of homelessness until family acceptance of LGBT youth becomes a societal norm.

Cyndi Lauper served as Grand Marshall in this weekend's New York City Pride Parade.

Today, Cyndi Lauper launched the Forty To None Project to address the inordinately high rate of homelessness among LGBT youth. Studies estimate that there are more than 1.6 million homeless kids between the ages of 12 and 17, and as many as 40 percent of that group identify as LGBT. This is largely due to the family rejection or abuse they experience when they come out as gay, bi, or trans. Lauper hopes to educate the public to help reduce the rejection and ensure these young people’s futures:

Homelessness knows nothing of age or race or gender. It can happen to anybody. But when statistics show that as many as 40% of the nation’s homeless youth are gay or transgender, compared to 3-5% of the overall youth population, we have to acknowledge that we’re facing a crisis. The disparity suggests that gay and transgender youth stand a much higher chance of becoming homeless because of abuse, neglect and familial rejection due to sexual orientation or gender identity that drive them to the streets.The kids on the Christopher Street Pier that day, and the other gay and transgender youth living on the streets who make up the 40% have done nothing wrong, other than being born the way they were supposed to be.  And because of who they are, these kids have been forced to leave their homes, subjected to abuse or worse.[...]

In our first five years, Forty to None will work to drive down the number of gay and transgender youth on the streets through a campaign that includes: education and awareness to raise the visibility of these young people and the direct service providers who work with them; advocacy at the state and federal levels; strengthening the network of services, advocates, community leaders and others working on the issue; training service providers to be more inclusive and understanding of the issues specifically affecting these kids; and empowering homeless gay and transgender youth themselves with valuable resources and information.

Watch a PSA for the new campaign:

The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento has cut all of its support for Francis House, one of the largest shelters serving homeless people in Sacramento, because its new director supports marriage equality. Despite having started as a Catholic-run charity, Francis House is now run by Rev. Faith Whitmore, a United Methodist minister who openly defied church law by marrying same-sex couples in 2008 and who also supports a woman’s right to obtain an abortion. According to spokesman Kevin Eckery, the Diocese argues it is unfair to spend parishioners money — up to $10,000 a year — on an organization whose leader does not represent Catholic values:

Eckery said he was unsure whether the diocese had received complaints about its donations to Whitmore’s agency. “But if we haven’t had one yet, we would get one,” he said. “We like to get out in front of these things.

“Francis House is a great charity, and we respect the fact that the director’s views are different from the diocese’s. But money collected during the annual appeal is very much Catholic parishioner money,” said Eckery.

“Why would we ask someone to contribute money to an organization and ask them to overlook all of those things that undermine the church’s teachings?“

This is only the latest decision that reflects an effort by the hierarchy of the Church to wipe its hands of anything that promotes LGBT equality or recognizes same-sex relationships. This particular example clearly demonstrates the bishops’ hypocrisy and expectation for special treatment. They claim that the government should support them like it does other charities, even though they pick and choose which organizations to support based on their values. They then justify their decisions by claiming they have to represent their parishioners who contribute money, but they have no consideration for the government’s interest in respecting its LGBT taxpayers.

The Catholic Church wants to have its cake and discriminate too. Don’t expect food or shelter if you’re not prepared to discriminate as well.

There are approximately 1.6 million to 2.8 million homeless young people in the United States and a disproportionate number — 20 to 40 percent — are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. LGBT youth often run away from home because of family conflict and then “face overt discrimination when seeking alternative housing, which is compounded by institutionalized discrimination in federally funded programs.”

Last night, a local CBS affiliate in Miami, Florida offered an in-depth look into the crisis of LGBT youth homelessness and the children who are put out “like trash” by parents who refuse to accept them:

Studies show that 320,000 to 400,000 gay and transgender youth face homelessness each year and that many lose their homes at the young age of 13 or 14, as they come out to their parents. Fortunately, the Department of Health and Human Services is already providing “training and technical assistance to States and Indian Tribes on a wide variety of LGBTQ-related issues” and the Obama administration has released recommendations for providing the best possible care in shelters for homeless LGBT youth.

But still, more must be done. There are currently no federal programs specifically designed to meet the needs of gay and transgender homeless youth and federal grant awards for homeless youth services “are being awarded to providers without mandating that they not discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity. As the Center for American Progress has recommended, President Obama should issue an executive order “recognizing both lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender homeless youth and homeless youth in general as special-needs populations, and protecting them from discrimination by federal grantees” and the federal government must begin developing programs “that help families from all communities support and nurture their gay and transgender children.”

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has also introduced the Reconnecting Youth to Prevent Homelessness Act, a bill “designed to help homeless youth rejoin their families and escape life on the streets.” The measure calls for a “demonstration project for improving family relationships and reducing homelessness for LGBT youth” and the development of programs “that improve family relationships and reduce homelessness for LGBT youth.”