Jaguars associate strength ach out as gay a first for US-based pro leagu

CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’

Kev Maxen, an assistant strength and ndng ach for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, has bee the first male ach major U.S. profsnal men's sports to publicly e out as gay. * cleveland gay homeless *

But his time workg there is built on years of g to the center as a young gay and homels me out at 12 and at 14 he was kicked out of the hoe. Cleveland Clic’s Center for Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr (LGBTQ+) Care offers healthre servic at the Lakewood Fay Health Center, 216.

”But gathered at Ruth’s Hoe, a 10-bed emergency shelter for gay homels youths here east Detro, they all said that for the first time they felt safe. Ruth’s Hoe is one of a small number of shelters for gay youths that have opened around the natn the past four years, reflectg an creasg awarens among child welfare advot of the disproportnately high number of gay youths the homels populatn and the special problems they face. Many experts timate that while gay men and lbians make up 3 percent to 5 percent of the general populatn, more than 20 percent of homels youths unr age 21 many urban areas are gay, acrdg to recent surveys of street youths and shelter workers published peer-reviewed amic journals, and a study released January by the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force and the Natnal Coaln for the Homels.

Once on the streets, advot and rearchers said, gay youths may be avoidg group hom, shelters and the foster re system bee they are aaid they will face vlence and harassment. Some gay youths have said they were beaten full view of shelter staff members who did nothg to help. Van Lewen and others found that gay homels youths were more than twice as likely to have attempted suici while livg on the streets than heterosexual homels youths.

NFL ACH BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR U.S. MEN’S PRO SPORTS TO E OUT AS GAY

New shelters reflect an creasg awarens of the disproportnately high number of gay youths the homels populatn and the special problems they face. * cleveland gay homeless *

Circumstanc are often difficult to verify, but some social workers said many gay teenagers report nng away after experiencg vlence at Detro, Shan’nell Jordan, 18, said she ran away om home when she was 12, after a relative reacted to a mor that she was gay by enuragg a iend to rape her. But Profsor Cochran said his rearch, which was based on terviews wh homels service provirs and naway youths, showed that gay homels youths Seattle “were almost twice as likely to have end up on the streets due to physil abe the home than were their straight peers. ” Gay advocy groups have urged Congrs to provi more money for servic for gay and lbian homels youths.

But homels and youth advocy groups fear that by prsg for money specifilly for gay youths, lobbyg will bee spltered, and the effort uld ve a backlash om antigay factns that would rult ls money for homels youth programs generally. The shelter is named after Ruth Ellis, an Ain-Amerin lbian who the 1930s opened her hoe the same neighborhood to gay Ain-Amerin teenagers. The pacy of gay youth shelters is limed, said Gerald P.

In San Francis, there are about 15 beds to serve a homels gay youth populatn that lol advot timate is the thoands, Profsor Mallon said.

GAY YOUTHS FD PLACE TO CALL HOME SPECIALTY SHELTERS

In New York Cy, there are no more than 50 beds for gay homels youths, he Cleveland, Mika Major is the director of the Metro Youth Outreach Drop-In Center, one of about 150 centers natnally where homels gay youths n receive unselg and other servic. Matt Foreman, executive director of the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force, said gay youths’ fears about shelters were valid. “Shelter staff often have the least trag and the least oversight, pared to schools or anywhere else” servg gay youths, Mr.

Dilo Ctron, 25, who said he lived on the streets for five years New York startg 2000, scribed beg gay a homels shelter, sayg, “You’re lucky if all they do is sneer the plac.

Ctron is takg job-trag class and is a volunteer at Sylvia’s Place, a shelter for homels gay youths Manhattan. At a shelter Sale, Mich., near Ann Arbor, staff members removed the door to a gay youth’s bedroom, to prevent homosexual behavr.