WaPo Story Honoring House for LGBT Teens Has Zero Space for Disagreement
You know you’re reading the liberal Washington Post when a story rejoices in the D.C. government offering “a measure of freedom she has never had” to “slip on a flower-print blouse and shave her face.” The place is Wanda Alston House, named after a lesbian activist staffer of NOW and the Human Rights Campaign who was stabbed to death in 2005. The top story in Sunday’s Metro section was headlined : “A Haven from the Streets: For lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youths, who face a higher risk of becoming homeless, D.C.’s Wanda Alston House offers refuge where they don’t have to fear being themselves.” Reporter Theresa Vargas was typically all sympathy and zero skepticism for the politically correct cause: As the District takes significant strides to advance the rights of LGBT residents — for example, recently legalizing same-sex marriage — the youths who pass through the Wanda Alston House tell of the vulnerability the community still faces. The house, named after an LGBT leader and mayoral adviser who was killed in 2005, is one of a handful of transitional houses in the nation that cater to people who experts say are more likely to become homeless and who, once in that category, pose challenges most shelter systems are unequipped to address. Should a transgender female be placed in a shelter with men or women? Where should a transgender male who still has the anatomy of a woman shower? …”These kids get swallowed up in the system,” says Brian Watson, who manages the house through the District’s Transgender Health Empowerment program. He says he has seen young people come from shelters who have been sexually abused, ridiculed and, in one case, made to sleep in a common living room instead of a bedroom because she was transgender. “These are good kids, really good kids,” Watson says. “They just need a chance.” The story not only dominated the front page of Metro, but all of page C-4. There were also two videos, also unanimous. In one, Watson explains “There’s just a lot of non-understanding of what is a transgender person, what is gender identity. I think that our GLB youths are at risk, but our T youth, our transgender youth, are definitely at a higher risk.”
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on May 23, 2011. Filed under