Crisis charity shop

[martipants]

Spotted outside a Crisis charity shop. I would be interested on thoughts on what is meant by Queer Resistance? Just not sure what this has to do with combating homelessness.

It’s clearly signaling a political position, which is a shame as I’m the kind of customer who would go out of my way to use a cafe that supported a charity like Crisis and this political posturing suggests to me:
a) that I would be unwelcome if they knew my views
and
b) they might use any money earned for campaigning for the removal of women’s rights, rather than into supporting homeless people.

It’s therefore misguided, as it would be if they advertised their support for any other political cause that is unrelated to their central cause.

Presumably a gay person who was homeless for a bit after being kicked out of their parents' house 60 years ago will be included in that "1 in 5" stat. And historically that was rather more common. Undoubtedly young people still get kicked out of home for being gay or trans but I assume the rate is significantly lower than it used to be.

Some of the trans messaging aimed at young people could definitely be interpreted by them as "it's better to be homeless than live with parents who don't accept your every whim". So I expect a number are making themselves homeless, not actually being kicked out.

Higher than average rates of homelessness in this group probably also result from higher than average rates of mental illness and instability in sexual relationships.

All this though is a bit of a distraction from the main point, which is that the sign is focusing on LGBT because that's cool and trendy in a way that merely providing services to boring ordinary homeless people isn't.

It might just be because it is June and the bandwagon is there to be jumped onto.

I did notice that the figures seemed lower than previous years, but hadn't realised the drop had been as big as your post implies.

Not saying this should be discussed here, but interesting to note, even if it is just the Army, that someone has recognised a problem and done something about it.

Makes you wonder why the same cant be done for young people leaving the care system, and probably prisoners at the end of their sentence.

https://www.riverside.org.uk/care-and-support/veterans/opfortitude/

Pronouns in CV = application form in bin therefore more likely to be unemployed

I might be able to find a Forces-charity report with some figures, but honestly, it's Too Damn Hot for sensible thinking. I know that it was 20% in the late nineties, and I know it was either 6% or 7% in 2022 and trending downwards, so I had a guess that 6% was probably a reasonable number.

Yes, they (for some value of They) ought to to be working on this as a matter of urgency, for the old, for the young, for the mentally different, for the ex-offenders.... It's another case for the Australian God Aorta.

Yes this, trans and gay people exist and are likely to experienced homelessness why wouldn't a homeless charity help them.

Sure they should; just not if it means ignoring the far greater numbers of homeless people who are not trans. It is very noticeable that "trans rights" is first in that list, and blowed if I can see what is particularly trans about the right of everyone to have a roof over his, her, ve, vi, vo or vum head, whatever the sexuality or sex condition of the individual.

Also, why does trans get mentioned twice? Or does the T in LGBT mean something else these days?

Why do you think anyone else is being ignored?

JFC gender critical people are so fragile, can't stand so much as a mention or acknowledgement that trans people exist

Oh - I can answer that. Because pandering to “trans rights” as you understand them to be is the very synthesis of ignoring the rights of others, especially women.

If the rights trans people claim were limited to the rights to which they are entitled, then there’d be no problem.

The reason I think everyone other than trans, queer, LGB trans again are being ignored is because, well, they are being ignored. Not mentioned at all, which is pretty-much the definition of "ignored".

Of course trans people exist. (They and their handmaids wouldn't be such a crushing bore if they didn't.) I don't think anyone has denied that they do; certainly not on this thread. Unless you can point out where that has been said? And it is likely that I was aware that gays and lesbians (why do bigots always miss out lesbians?) existed before you had even been born.

I suggest you look at the photo in the OP.

Whatever its intent, assuming someone even engaged their brain before creating this, only mention one group of people tells everyone else you aren't as important / interesting as the pandered to group.

My guess is that they’re only bothered about the T+ & the L is only there to be part of the acronym.

Once upon a time, I was homeless and living in a young women's long-term hostel. I had the choice of single-sex or young people's mixed-sex accommodation because there were places free in each hostel that month. I chose single-sex, and one of the things that makes me a TERF today is that this option isn't available for young women today.

I established a Proper Life thanks to the support I got there, and as a Proper Adult with a Proper Life, I have extended a helping mentoring hand to young adults in a similar position.

All this is to say, the causes of homelessness in young people that I have seen include: fleeing sexual abuse in the family, fleeing substance misuse and associated violence from a parent, homelessness because mother or father's new partner doesn't want them, aging out from the care system, being asked to leave the family home due to their own drug problem, and yes, family homophobia.

However, in the 21st century, the family homophobia seems to be strongly linked to ethnic background, which is a subject polite middle-class people don't like to discuss because they feel racist.

I'm a working class ex-hostel resident, so I guess I'll have to be the brave one and point out that some cultures and nations are still incredibly homophobic.

The below is from the Guardian, which incidentally blames US evangelists for homophobia in Africa, but I'm not convinced we can blame the US for young black men and women being made homeless in the UK because their 2nd generation immigrant parents are disgusted by homosexuality.

Around half of the 60 or so countries worldwide which criminalise same-sex relations are in Africa, though six countries – Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho, Seychelles and Mauritius – have decriminalised it in recent years, and South Sudan lifted the death penalty. South Africa, which legalised same-sex marriage in 2006, has constitutional protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and has continued to enact legislation to protect gay rights, though homophobic crime persists.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/13/the-guardian-view-on-africas-homophobic-legislation-western-influences-are-encouraging-hatred

People don't shed their deeply held cultural and religious beliefs upon entry to the UK, and you'll be a better advocate for LGB youth if you acknowledge who is at risk of homelessness.

So glad to hear your experience had a good outcome. But sad to think homeless women today might not get the same options you did.

And just brilliant that you now mentor.

Queer is not the same as homosexual.

Queer is a word that many older lesbian and gay people find deeply offensive. (the TQ crowd, who are so into microaggressions and kindness and language don't care)

'Trans rights' is a desire to overturn sex based rights. Which would, as the SC pointed out, end gay rights. And they view homosexuality as sexual racism, and find attraction on the basis of sex unacceptable. The appropriation of LGB with the T+ is offensive too on that basis alone, the LGB not obedient to the political T were long since kicked out of the community, spaces and representation.

So essentially that whole lot of wang is just political transactivism.

I was interested to see stats on this, but then found a discussion which doesn't deny the reality of homelessness among BME youth. But points out that campaigns will say use stats from London, where the % of BME population is higher, so not in fact applicable to UK as a whole.

Why dont people collect stats and show they for what they are.

Quote:

What campaigns do: They merge general youth homelessness drivers with highly niche LGBTQ+ statistics to create a singular narrative.
The Reality: The stat that "65% of young homeless LGBTQ+ people are BME" comes directly from the internal caseworker data of akt (a specialist charity). It does not mean 65% of all young homeless people in the UK are BME and gay. Mainstream statutory data from local councils shows that the top reasons for youth homelessness across all demographics are general family breakdown, poverty, and eviction—not specifically sexuality. The campaign may be framing a niche, specialist dataset as if it is the rule for the entire homeless population.

What campaigns do: They try to claim one specific intersectional group is the "most" vulnerable to justify targeted funding.
The Reality: While BME LGBTQ+ youth undeniably face severe, unique cultural pressures and a distinct lack of safe spaces, stating they are the "most" rejected can mask other massive crises. For instance, white working-class care leavers (young people coming out of the foster care system) make up a massive, disproportionate chunk of the UK's rough-sleeping youth population. Depending on which dataset a campaign chooses to look at, they can make a compelling argument that either group is the "most" marginalized.

I would have thought campaigns that directly reflect the area they are working in would in fact be more productive.

And all because some armchair revolutionary wants to virtue signal.

YouGov is quite robust on panel size, demographic balance etc. But it's a commercial market research company. It will ask any questions you want, for anyone who pays. The surveys are often quite poorly designed, with big gaps in the range of possible answers (try doing any of the political ones as an NI resident). And once you have the report you commissioned there's nothing to stop you cherry picking data from it.

There are also older lesbians that prefer queer, because when they were bullied it was lesbian and lezza that was thrown at them. It's really variable by area of country/ age. Suspect it may even vary by what school you went to and was the preferred bullying term there.

Then I get told my preferred word for myself (queer) is offensive to others and I should use words that remind me of being bullied instead :(

I dont think anyone is saying queer is offensive.

It is about the reality that like it or not Queer Culture that was part of the back lash against women starting in the late 70s, and as we know is now imbedded in government, universities, the media etc., has now "educated" people to understand that in the now "Queer" world of sexual politics, "Queer" doesn't even respect lesbianism, because it thinks it isn't about same sex attraction. They say a TW (ie a man) can be a lesbian.

I share your feeling of having words that are important to you taken away from you, but it is also necessary to be aware that in continuing to use a word that has a meaning from the past for you, can mean you will be seen as someone you are not. ie not an actual lesbian but someone who doesn't think sex is biology, and is something you can identify into.

And despite the work of the LGB Alliance, the trans, rainbow umbrella who pump out queer ideology through Stonewall etc., has got the stranglehold

Edited to add: Never knew any lesbians in the past, who ever used the word queer. Dyke yes!

Actually I do find 'queer' offensive, it's something a number of older gay people do.

I don't know why I gravitated to it, other than all of the other words were ones the bullies used and that wasnt.

Oh, I do know! It was Queer as Folk. First time I saw lesbians being funny and looking like people on tv.

Sorry, I don't want to be offensive to others. I just lack other words that don't feel uncomfortable or upsetting to me. I try not to use it to describe anyone other than me and my wife.

I stopped using the old Yorkshire saying "There's nowt so queer as folk" when the word queer was being used as an insult to my friends, and said "nowt so daft as folk" instead. It was "reclaimed", or so I was told, but now of course it's an insult to a different lot of people, and I still have to bowdlerise the phrase.