Orlando nonprofits rise to support homeless LGBTQ youth amid statewide restrictions
Amid ever-changing statewide restrictions, Orlando nonprofits are expanding services for homeless and at-risk LGBTQ youth.
Thanks to an influx of grant money, at least two Orlando groups are addressing the growing demand for medical care, housing and mental health care in this population: Zebra Youth and the Homeless Service Network of Central Florida.
These moves come amid a crackdown in Florida and other conservative-led states on minors whose gender identity doesn’t match their sex. In 2023 alone, Gov. Ron DeSantis enacted six laws labeled anti-LGBTQ by the Human Rights Campaign, including a law making it a felony to provide gender-affirming care to minors. Human rights and LGBTQ groups are battling the law in court.
The Homeless Service Network of Central Florida is prioritizing LGBTQ youth and other at-risk groups in a multi-year effort called Brighter Days Brighter Futures, funded by an $8.4 million Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program grant awarded in October 2022.
More information will be available at the 2023 Brighter Days Community Fair from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Grand Avenue Neighborhood Center, 800 Grand St., Orlando. This event offers entertainment alongside games and services such as on-site health and STD testing.
Meanwhile, Zebra Youth, which serves homeless LGBTQ people ages 13-24, received $100,000 from Disney in October to expand services in its drop-in center. The organization received an additional $25,000 from the Synchrony Foundation to go toward education assistance and $50,000 from Orlando Health to hire a full-time case manager who will help young people navigate the medical system, particularly transgender and nonbinary youth.
Attorneys general back Florida’s attempt to block transgender care
Zebra Youth’s new full-time case manager will provide help with basic medical services like scheduling physicals, therapy and dentist appointments, alongside providing additional guidance to youth struggling to navigate these fluctuating laws, said Zebra Youth Executive Director Heather Wilkie.
Zebra case management has historically focused on helping its homeless population, but now, Zebra will be able to help even more.
“We are here to stay, if not more important now than ever,” Wilkie said. “I’ve had a lot of personal friends and youth that we serve move out of the state because of these laws, and I understand why, but we need to be able to provide services for the trans people who are still here. Not everybody can move.”
Banned gender-affirming care includes GnRH analogues, also called puberty blockers, which can pause the development of feminine or masculine characteristics for kids who haven’t finished going through puberty. The effects of puberty blockers are reversible.
After puberty blockers, in consultation with their doctor, some teens start taking cross-sex hormones to develop characteristics of their preferred gender. Some don’t choose to take this step and others wait until adulthood. These may cause irreversible effects.
In less than 1% of cases nationwide, transgender teens have genital surgeries or mastectomies, also banned by Florida’s law. Transgender children do not receive these surgeries, and adolescents have received them in only rare cases.
Every major medical organization decries these bans. In a June press release, the Endocrine Society called them the result of “widespread misinformation” noting gender-affirming care for minors takes a conservative approach and there have been over 2,000 scientific studies on gender-affirming care since 1975.
“Medical decisions should be made by patients, their relatives and health care providers, not politicians,” the release reads.
Wilkie, a licensed mental health counselor, worries about the impact that losing access to these services may have on Florida’s youth. She also worries that LGBTQ teens may internalize hateful rhetoric about the issue.
“When you’re young and impressionable, how do you start feeling about yourself when you’re seeing all over the news that you’re not being supported?” she said.
Zebra offers free counseling and has about a six-week waitlist, Wilkie said.
The organization also has a network of LGBTQ-affirming doctors and mental health providers that it refers clients to, and provides training to doctors in the community about how to provide LGBTQ-affirming care.
Housing needs remain
Advocates agree one of the biggest unmet needs in this community right now is housing. Wilkie called it the biggest unmet need.
LGBTQ people are more likely than their straight, cisgender counterparts to become homeless, in many cases because their families do not accept their sexuality or gender identity, according to a 2018 nationwide survey by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.
In a 2017 survey of Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties’ homeless youth, 35% identified as LGBTQ compared to an estimated 7% of the general population.
This population has special concerns once they become homeless and struggles to find shelters where they feel welcome, said nonprofit Homeless Services Network of Central Florida youth project coordinator Aja Hunter.
“A lot of what we were hearing from our LGBTQ+ youth is they don’t feel comfortable in traditional shelters. There’s an issue of safety. There’s an issue of comfortability,” Hunter said. “Most of these shelters are adult-based. We have very little youth and young adult shelters in the area.”
Covenant House, a 28-bed crisis facility in Orlando for homeless young adults ages 18 to 22 years old, closed in July after two decades.
Covenant House Orlando, a shelter for for homeless youths, to close in July
In the future, Central Florida nonprofits hope to expand the housing options available to youth, particularly those in the LGBTQ community.
Zebra hosts the region’s only LGBTQ youth-focused housing. The group currently offers 11 beds in its Bridge Housing Program. In 2022, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer committed support to Zebra to turn 22 hotel units into homes for LGBTQ youth.
Wilkie hopes to eventually create a standalone housing complex with about 50 beds. She says one of the biggest barriers is finding a space to put it.
“If we do find the right fit, I think that we’ll end up being able to support it financially. It’s just finding that location,” Wilkie said.
Ccatherman@orlandosentinel.com; @CECatherman Twitter
