We give a damn

40% of youth experiencing homelessness in America are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). The most frequently cited reason they experience homelessness is family rejection based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Megan Gibbard is leading the charge to end LGBT youth homelessness in King County, WA and coordinates the efforts to end youth and young adult homelessness with All Home. Her article in the Seattle Times connects her own experience coming out and growing up with the young people she works with and the cause she’s most passionate about.

I came out to my parents in the early 1990s. I was 16 and living with my family in Bremerton.

While my parents struggled with my news, and while my mother grappled to discern what her faith imparted about homosexuality, they did not kick me out of their home. I attended college with their support and began working for a young-adult homeless shelter in 2002. Between signing in shelter guests, eating plates of reheated casserole and talking over sleeping mats laid out across the church floor, I understood the only difference between my experiences and those of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) youths at the shelter were the families we happened to be born into.

My parents did not reject me when I shared who I knew myself to be. Sadly, too many other parents do.

Read more about Megan’s work to end homelessness among LGBT young people.