Most gay and lesbian youths face many challenges in the community because of their sex orientation. They feel rejected by the community even with the many campaigns being done by LGBTQ community. However, despite these many LGBTQ campaigns, many gay and lesbian youths are finding themselves homeless due to the rejection they face from their families. Therefore, article "Conditional Families and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Youth Homelessness: Gender, Sexuality, Family Instability, and Rejection", done by Robinson (2018) the researcher examines how family poverty and instability shaped how they perceived youth that identified as being gay of lesbians.
Andrew Robinson, the researcher, did multisite ethnography on LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness, and the target sites were an organization helping the homeless youth in central Texas. During the research, Andrew volunteered weekly at different organizations that would help him know the people involved in such social settings and form good relations with them that would later help when conducting further research (Robinson 2018). The study involved 40 in-depth interviews with the youths experiencing homelessness due to being gay or lesbian. The interviews were recorded and addressed mostly their experiences by identifying themselves with the LGBTQ community. In addition, the researcher asked questions around the issue of family status and how they contributed to child homelessness. Finally, the resulted from the study were analyzed, and a conclusion made.
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The researcher found out that all the 40 youths who have interviewed faced family instability though their instability varied depending on the intersecting social locations. More so, being a child of color, their sexuality was highly taken with sensitivity compared to the whites. Most youths of color said they experienced rejection and were judged harshly by their society. These youths said that they had to hide their sexuality for a long time because of the stigmatization of being part of the LGBTQ community (Tsappis et al. 2016). Those from low-income families acknowledge being rejected by their family and ended up being homeless since they had nowhere to turn to. Some youths claimed that most there was no room to choose their sexuality, and they had to adhere to the heterosexualism of their parents. There was no negotiation on romantic relationships, and those that went against their parents will find themselves homeless. Therefore, the poor and parents of color were portrayed as rigid on issues of sexuality.
However, as much as the finding was accurate, the researcher was biased when selecting the study group. Most of the gay and lesbian youths faced rejection from their family and those that faced homelessness were from poor and unstable families and people of color (Carastathis 2013). Focusing on those that ended up in Organization that helped homeless people after their families have rejected there was biased since some of the youths, even from the rich families, may face rejection from their families by they may not turn to homeless shelters because there has someone to turn to. Since the researcher was dwelling on LGBTQ youths that were rejected and kicked out of their parent's homes, the demographic of the study should have included all LGBTQ youths both with homes and those that are homeless.
The study showed that low-income families and youth of color experienced homelessness due to their rejection by the family for being gay and lesbians. However, the research would have focused on the experience the youths face for being gay people from both the poor, wealthy, whites and people of color. Through an understanding, even LGBTQ youths from wealthy and white’s families face rejection from their families. The youths from these backgrounds do not end up homeless because their families have a public image to protect, which pushes their LGBTQ children to live in isolation and face many challenges in their family homes. Therefore, studying the whole demographic of LGBTQ youths will give an unbiased picture of their experiences.
References
Carastathis, Geoffrey S. "Rejected by the family for being lesbian and gay : exploring and testing factors that contribute to resilience." THESES: DOCTORATES AND MASTERS (2013): 699.
Robinson, Brandon Andrew. "Conditional Families and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Youth Homelessness: Gender, Sexuality, Family Instability, and Rejection." Journal Of Marriage and Family (2018): 383-396.
Tsappis, Michael, Margaret Rosario and Sabra L. Katz-Wise. "LGBT Youth and Family Acceptance." Pediatr Clin North Am. December 2016: 1011-1025. DOI: 10.1016/j.pcl.2016.07.005.
