Youth commission seeks funding for new programs

The Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth plans to push for an unprecedented $2.9 million in state funding for youth programs in the Fiscal Year 2009, a figure far above the commission's FY02 high watermark of $1.6 million.

That sum would fund gay/straight alliances (GSAs) and community-based organizations serving LGBT youth, a staple of state LGBT funding in past years. But it would also break ground by funding new initiatives, including a pilot homeless shelter serving LGBT youth and programming to combat LGBT youth dating violence. During the commission's March 17 meeting in Springfield, Jason Smith, chair of the commission, told commissioners to get comfortable with the $2.9 million figure and to understand it as the "bare minimum" of funding needed to respond to the critical needs of LGBT youth. He urged them not to get discouraged by news reports and comments from lawmakers and budget watchers that this year's tight fiscal situation - House Speaker Sal DiMasi has promised the FY09 budget will include $100 million in cuts - means there will be few funding increases.

The commission's budget request would more than offset the deep cuts made to the state's LGBT youth budget since the state budget crisis in 2002 prompted then-Gov. Jane Swift to gut LGBT youth funding. Funding continued to hover well below the FY02 level during the administration of Gov. Mitt Romney and the first year of Gov. Deval Patrick's administration; in the current fiscal year the total LGBT youth funding stands at $600,000.

The funding request is a product of the commission's work over the past year to identify the most pressing needs facing LGBT youth. Since last summer the commission has held regional meetings in Boston, Hyannis, Worcester, Brockton, and the most recent in Springfield to meet with LGBT youth, GSA advisors and LGBT youth program coordinators and develop a picture of the health and safety risks facing LGBT young people. The commission, drew on those meetings and their own expertise to develop funding priorities, and the commission's executive committee and government relations committee synthesized those priorities into an itemized request.

During the meeting, the first time the full commission discussed the funding proposal, the item that drew the most attention was the $400,000 for a pilot shelter for homeless LGBT youth. Commissioner Al Toney said he felt it would be more effective to focus on making existing shelters safe for LGBT youth rather than creating one LGBT-friendly shelter. He said he worried that with just one safe shelter in the state, many youth seeking safe housing would have to travel across the state and outside their communities in order to make use of the shelter's services.

In response commissioner Gunner Scott, head of the health and human services committee that recommended the pilot shelter, said that based on his decade of experience in shelter services, which included work with The Network/La Red, a domestic violence service organization, he believes that in the short term the community cannot rely on mainstream shelters to create safe spaces for LGBT youth. He told commissioners that if they imagined all the problems facing LGBT youth in schools, the situation in shelters is that severe "magnified by 300 percent."

Smith said the commission would defer to the health and human services committee's recommendation.

Eleni Carr, chair of the government relations committee, told Bay Windows the $400,000 for the shelter would support a 12-bed facility that would be open during the evenings and overnight but closed during the day. She said the budget request makes no suggestion about where the shelter should be located.

"The idea would be that it would be a 45-day kind of thing, so kids could be assessed and directed to services and hopefully a more permanent situation," said Carr. She said if the pilot shelter is successful the commission would recommend the creation of similar shelters to serve different regions of the state.

The issue of LGBT youth homelessness was at the forefront of the Springfield commission meeting, held at Springfield Central High School. Before the public meeting that evening the commission held a closed-door session with a group of youth and LGBT service providers from Springfield, Holyoke and Longmeadow. A 19-year-old from Holyoke said that when he came out his aunt, who was raising him at the time, kicked him out of the house. The commission permitted Bay Windows to cover the session on the condition that the paper not use the names of the youth unless they gave their express permission.

The Holyoke youth said that after he was forced out he entered the Department of Social Services (DSS) system, but he said several of his foster families rejected him after discovering he was gay. At age 18 he left DSS, but found few options for housing and several times considered going to a shelter.

"I returned to DSS last week," he said.

Chino Rios, an 18-year-old high school student from Springfield, said that while his own family has been supportive, he knows several LGBT peers who have been forced out of their homes by their families after coming out.

"I know a lot of friends that I've even taken into my own home. Thank God my mom's accepting," said Rios.

The youth said that at school teachers and administrators rarely respond to incidents of anti-LGBT harassment with more than a slap on the wrist.

"If you do report it to the teacher they'll say they weren't serious about what they did," said one female student from Longmeadow.

The Holyoke youth said that he helped found Holyoke High School's GSA a few years ago, which has had a modest impact on the climate for LGBT students. The GSA took it upon itself to do teacher trainings on LGBT issues. But despite that, he said he was a constant target of harassment. People in class passed him notes calling him a faggot, harassed him in the locker room and refused to change next to him.

"I dropped out of high school. ... Every single day I was tortured," he said.

Rios, who attends Springfield's High School of Commerce, said that he has encountered less harassment, in large part because he found a group of LGBT friends who support each other.

"We have a little homo posse, and we stick up for each other," said Rios.

Rios and the Holyoke youth, who are both Puerto Rican, said that it has been particularly difficult to be out within the Puerto Rican community in Western Mass. The Holyoke student said some of the worst harassment he has faced has been at the hands of other Puerto Rican youth, and he said even though he is out he has at times felt ashamed to be gay when he is within the community.

"It's something we're taught from a young age, that a man is supposed to be one thing and a woman is supposed to be another thing," he said. He urged the commission to create a committee to deal with issues facing LGBT minorities.

Following the meeting with the youth the commission held its open meeting, where Smith and Carr outlined the budget proposal. Carr said the $2.9 million was split between the Department of Public Health (DPH), which will receive $2.1 million, and the Department of Education (DOE), which will receive $800,000.

Carr told Bay Windows that the funding for the homeless shelter would come from the DPH funding, as will a number of other programs. The commission is requesting $800,000 to support community-based organizations such as the Alliances of Gay and Lesbian Youth (AGLYs), and $300,000 to create programs dealing with dating violence. The DOE funding includes $500,000 to support GSAs.

Carr told commissioners the House Ways and Means committee is expected to announce its FY09 budget proposal on or around April 16. If the proposal falls short of the $2.9 million figure (Gov. Patrick's own proposal, released in January, level-funded LGBT youth programs), Carr said lawmakers would have until 5 p.m. on April 18 to file amendments to bump up those numbers. She said the commission is lining up sponsors to file those amendments, but between now and the release of the Ways and Means budget she urged commissioners to schedule meetings with their state representatives to make the case for the $2.9 million in funding and to ask them to commit to co-sponsoring the amendments if the Ways and Means budget falls short of that figure.

"$2.9 million, compared to what we have it seems like a lot. ... It is a necessary increase. It is what is needed in the schools and the community to create safer spaces for kids, a more positive social environment," Carr told Bay Windows.