gay & homeless
somebody asked me on formspring about where are the stories about homeless glbt youth who don’t have hunky dory parents. then someone else emailed me to share their story for me to share with this person so i did the thing on formspring that’s supposed to put the question back into my inbox so that i can answer it again. but it didn’t go back into my inbox so instead i am just going to publish the story that was shared with me here and say ANONYMOUS THIS IS FOR YOU!
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Over New Years (2010/2011) I travelled by greyhound bus from NYC to LA to see my girlfriend at the time. My mother found out via a social networking site (facebook) and took every penny out of my bank account and shut off my phone (the girl I was dating happened to be her favorite reality star… so it set her off that not only I was dating a GIRL but someone she was a FAN of… my mom is a huge homophobe). I was stranded in LA with nothing but my suitcase. Because it took me so long to get back to NY, I lost my job that I had there. Because my mother stole all of my money, I could not pay my rent. I bounced around between friends for a while, but this is New York, and nobody has room for extra peopel in their apartments. I then went to a homeless shelter, but it was a terrifying experience. I then started sleeping on the subway. I also realized that nobody wanted to hire someone who is homeless, so I had to start hiding my suitcase in different places when I went into job interviews. I also had my wallet stolen, so I no longer had ID and my mother refused to hand over my birth certificate and social security card so I couldnt get a new one. I’m back on friends couches, and I have a job now and hopefully will have a new place to stay soon. I just wanted anonymous to know that it will get better. And even though my shelter experience wasnt a positive one, there are some amazing places out there. Shelters specifically for women and children are best-battered womens shelters especially, and they wont turn you away. they help you to get everything you need. food, metrocards, etc. I just want them to know everything will be okay.
Can you recommend a tumblr with pictures of cute rugged girls? (Cute in the mainstream sense, unfortunately, it’s a project for work)
i can’t unfortunately, but maybe if i put this on the internet someone will volunteer one?
Skins UK’s Franky isn’t a lesbian and she isn’t bisexual and she isn’t straight. Franky just likes people. No really, Franky just likes people.
Since realizing i was gay, ive became even more crazy than before, like now i dont throw anything on the ground and recycle everything. like i became obsessed with respecting everything for what it is. im so fucking crazy/insane/nonhuman. doesntmakesence?
if you have positive energy inside you, you will carry it with you all the time and it will radiate out of you like lasers! i salute you!
I just watched Lost and Delirious for the first time. Why didn’t they end the movie half an hour in? Paulie is profoundly hot, though, so I’m conflicted about trying to forget it entirely.
riese has some thoughts on this
http://www.autostraddle.com/top-ten-best-lesbian-movies-that-dont-suck-two-19194/2/
I’m being sponsored to go to the West Bank for 3 months. I just had to fill out the last million forms and the man was being slimy/pretentious/dickish and asked me what my “orientation” was and I said straight. I feel really awful and little.
i was in india for five months, and i only told maybe 5? people about my “orientation.” the family i lived with, for instance, were not on that list of five people. nor were 90% of the people i saw on a daily basis. i wasn’t proud of that. but i wasn’t ashamed either. in a perfect world we would all be brave and honest about everything, we would all tell our truths and refuse to apologize for them. but in the real world, you need to take care of yourself because sometimes no one else is going to, and occasionally that means doing this. you need to be safe, and safety from being sneered at and having smug assholes raise their eyebrows at you and the people around you suddenly regard you as a sex terrorist time bomb is a thing.
it’s true that coming out helps with visibility/representation/progress, but it’s also true that there are times when those benefits are minimal because it’s just you and this dick behind a desk and this thing you are doing already seems so scary. and in those times it’s okay.
i know how it feels to feel awful and little but i want you to know i feel excited for you, i feel proud that you are doing this and i hope you write everything down while you’re there.
I work with a pretty girl who I think likes me, but she won’t date people she works with. We stop working together in May and she invited me to stay in NY with her during the summer. I think this might lead to sex, but I’m a virgin so I might suck! HELP!
i don’t think there is any actual problem here? at least not that googling “how do lesbians have sex??!” can’t solve
didnt mean why are you so sure I mean kinda like, would you. Or why do you think you won’t. Sorry.
oh weird! the way you phrased it did not sound like that AT ALL. well i will answer you then! i’m not sure. nobody is. i’m pretty sure i won’t date another man because i’m psychic and can see the future. it’s more about me than it is about them. this is just how i am now. i can’t explain it, i guess.
In an essay published two years ago in Time magazine, the writers of The Wire made the argument that we believe the war on drugs has devolved into a war on the underclass, that in places like West and East Baltimore, where the drug economy is now the only factory still hiring and where the educational system is so crippled that the vast majority of children are trained only for the corners, a legal campaign to imprison our most vulnerable and damaged citizens is little more than amoral. And we said then that if asked to serve on any jury considering a non-violent drug offense, we would move to nullify that jury’s verdict and vote to acquit. Regardless of the defendant, I still believe such a course of action would be just in any case in which drug offenses—absent proof of violent acts—are alleged. Both our Constitution and our common law guarantee that we will be judged by our peers. But in truth, there are now two Americas, politically and economically distinct. I, for one, do not qualify as a peer to Felicia Pearson. The opportunities and experiences of her life do not correspond in any way with my own, and her America is different from my own. I am therefore ill-equipped to be her judge in this matter.
So if you haven’t emailed me back, should I just assume you’re ignoring my email? Or are you just bad at emailing people back? But it’s been weeks… So don’t go with the latter. I know the truth. PLEASE EMAIL ME BACK THOUGH. I’m dying. And you’re no help
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS IS IN REFERENCE TO. i have even racked my brain for people in my personal/real life that i could be failing somehow, and i honestly don’t know? i think might be an intern application i haven’t emailed back about? i’m really not trying to be a dick but are you sure you actually emailed me and not rahcel at autostraddle dot com or something? girl i want to help you out, but you’ve got to tell me what you need
You said that you had lots of sex but hated your body. I’m wondering how that worked, because I hate my body and can’t image having sex because of that.
i hated my body from the age of consciousness until about 16? i mean, hated. LOATHED. i looked really emaciated even though i ate a lot, which everyone told me meant i was lucky and i thought they were crazy (now i realize they were right, and i am crazy for accepting that realization, we are all crazy). everyone thought i was a boy. a young boy who needed a cheeseburger. i dressed like a boy too, although that was related to the fact that boyclothes are only boyclothes insofar as one BELIEVES IN THE GENDER BINARY as we label them as such, but it’s more about body type than gender i think. anyhow the worst part is, of course, the moment they realize you’re not a boy. like if someone apologizes. so weird. i got teased a LOT at school b/c of my body or made fun of or whatever. like ‘you’re a carpenter’s dream: flat as a board and never been nailed.’
anyhow i like my body now, i guess. i like everyone else’s bodies too. i think all girls are beautiful and have perfect bodies. right? i think you’re probably perfect.