People are trying their best to give homes and spaces of rest for queer black youth this Holiday season.
According to the Independent, a new campaign is raising funds to give queer Black youth proper Christmas celebrations. Writer and youth worker Tanya Compas, whom Amnesty UK named one of the UK’s most inspiring women, is spearheading the crowdfunding campaign that aims to offer 35 queer black youth a “chosen family” this Christmas season.
Compas was hoping to gather £3,000 to cover food, alcohol-free drinks, and Christmas decorations. That said, the campaign has already received £4,246. As such, she’s now going to give the youth Christmas stockings with gifts.
“This period can bring up feelings of dread, isolation and sadness, both IRL and on social media too,” Compas wrote on the crowdfunding page.
“I want to create a small, intimate event in which I can facilitate community building, friendships, remind one another of the importance of chosen family and give us the chance to have a family meal, regardless of our faith background,” she added.
So Black Queer Christmas is officially happening and I am trying to fundraise £1,200 to cover the costs so that I can keep the event entirely free for the young people. Just £25 will cover the cost for one young person. You can donate here https://t.co/JUjuF1TbaG THANK YOU https://t.co/favtkjcDkP pic.twitter.com/QpkdvzHbUu
— Tanya Compas (@TanyaCompas) November 29, 2019
It's coming up to a year now that I have been estranged from my family and this is the first Christmas I'll be spending without them, so this project is really close to my heart. I want to make it perfect.
— Tanya Compas (@TanyaCompas) November 29, 2019
Also for young people DMing me asking if they’ve missed the sign up, don’t worry, you haven’t! I had to wait to see if we could raise the money first before doing the sign up LOL! I’ll be posting it up some time next week ❤️
— Tanya Compas (@TanyaCompas) November 29, 2019
*Less than a day LOL. It's mad.
— Tanya Compas (@TanyaCompas) November 29, 2019
According to the Williams Institute, 40% of the homeless youth served by agencies identify as LGBT, 43% of clients served by drop-in centers identified as LGBT, 30% of street outreach clients identified as LGBT, and 30% of clients utilizing housing programs identified as LGBT.
But according to Northwestern University, queer people of color experience homelessness to a higher degree.
“Of the 3.5 million people in the United States who experience homelessness each year, 42% of them are black and 20% are Hispanic (even while each group represents just over 12% of the U.S. population),” wrote the university in a study.
“You have to acknowledge that the struggle for LGBTQ youth of color is not the same” says Gabriel Maldonado, CEO and Executive Director of TruEvolution said to QPOC news source Efniks.
“You have to understand the greater issues that are not being talked about when we address homeless youth” says Gabriel. “It’s the history of how people of color have struggled, have been treated, and how it is passed down to our queer youth. It is all a system.”
He then added, “We know that there are higher numbers of QTPoC youth who are homeless, yet nothing related to what makes them more vulnerable to being homeless is ever reported in said studies.”
But with people like Compas speaking up for QPOC youth, perhaps support and acknowledgment of that struggle will grow.
Source: The Independent, Williams Institute, Northwestern University
