OREGON S GAY/LESBIAN/Bl/TRANS NEWSMAGAZINE
FEBRUARY 5. 2010 15
. W !
NW NEWS
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>pher Bolla
lers himself
Those high-risk behaviors include alco­
hol and drug abuse, suicide, teen pregnancy,
unsafe sex, and sex with multiple partners, as
well as problems associated with depression,
anxiety, and other mental health disorders.
High-risk behavior is something fairly
common among homeless youth, “[but] sexual
and gender minority youth are at higher risk
for all at-risk behaviors,” says SM YRC’s Ellis.
“Adolescence is a really difficult time for
any youth,” Lundberg says. “I f your emerg­
ing sense of gender orientation is such that
it is alienating you from your peer group and
society, and you’re being fed a message of
non-acceptance, [and] o f self-loathing, you
start to see really high-risk behavior.
“There’s a lot o f internalized self ha­
tred that manifests itself in self-harming,
self-cutting, [and] suicide idealization,”
he continues.
Ellis and others stop short o f saying the
main reason homeless gay youth more read­
ily engage in high-risk behaviors is simply
because they are gay.
“I think when you’re homeless, you do
a lot o f things to forget about why you’re
homeless,” Kane says.
But being a gay homeless youth is differ­
ent from simply being young and homeless.
Gay youth not only face the challenges of
being on the street, but also feel the added
emotional weight o f exploring and deter­
mining their sexual and gender identities.
Homelessness compounds the difficulty of
those experiences.
“When you’re homeless, you have to be
constantly thinking about your survival needs,”
Ellis says. “You can’t spend it figuring out your
identity or what’s happening with your body.”
But they find a way.
“Am I a lesbian?”Sabrina asks. She wonders
this often. “Am I bi? Do I feel comfortable be­
ing bio-female? It sounds like a soap opera.”
Sitting on a couch watching cartoons at
Janus Youth’s day center on a Wednesday
afternoon, 24-year-old Christopher Bolland,
who has been homeless on-and-off for seven *
years, says he considers himself “bi-curi-
ous”— not bisexual, but simply curious about
same-sex relationships. “I try not to put a
label on it, to tell you the truth,” he says.
Bolland is lounging in a bright, airy room
much like a living room. Windows along one
wall reveal painted murals done in the past
by homeless youth. Washing machines and
dryers hum in one corner. Boxes o f tampons,
razors, toothbrushes, hotel-issued looking
soap and shampoo sit at the check-in desk.
By the end o f the day, it will all be taken.
Some youth sit at round tables at the far end
o f the room eating lunch, while others chill
out on a couch and watch The Princess Bride.
Every Wednesday afternoon, Janus Youth
opens as a day space for youth to drop in.
Twenty people signed up that day to take the
H IV survey. “We thought five would have
been successful,” Lundberg shares. Many o f
those 20 were motivated to take the survey
not necessarily because they thought it was
important, but because of the $10 gift card
to Safeway or Fred Meyer they would receive
for doing so.
The five youth Just Out spoke to at Janus
Youth all said they were not worried about
being HIV-positive. “I pretty much practice
abstinence,” says Jessie, 24.
Jessie says he knows many gay homeless
youth, and has not observed discrimina­
tion. As he folds his dried laundry into his
backpack, he explains that homeless people
are more tolerant than many think. “If you’re
homeless, you’re pretty damn well used to
other lifestyles,” he says.
C A P ’s Kane expects to find a large num­
ber o f youth engaging in high-risk behaviors
surrounding drug use, needle exchanging
and unprotected sex. Korthuis says he will be
“surprised” if no youth unexpectedly find out
they are HIV-positive.
C A P and the other agencies involved in
the survey will use the information to tai­
lor education and prevention services and
create programs to serve particular needs
o f homeless youth not already being met.
“A second goal that is no less important is
identifying youth who are HIV-positive
and engaging them in treatment,” Korthuis
says. “That’s critical.”
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