Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Kids Struggle on the Streets

[w8liftinglady]

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/national-report-16-million-youth-homeless-experts-40/story?id=15147566

Tiffany "LIFE" Cocco has been homeless for seven years, living on park benches, stoops and New York City's A train.

Her parents died of AIDS in the 1980s and so Cocco was raised by an aunt and uncle who disapproved of how she dressed and led her life -- as a lesbian.

"I was kicked out of the house at 15," said Cocco, a poet whose chosen middle name means "literary, intelligent, forward, engaged."

She dropped out of high school after being bullied, rebelled and was forced to keep her sexuality a secret. Cocco slipped into a depression so deep she nearly killed herself on an overdose of pain killers, NyQuil and Tylenol PM.

"I didn't trust anyone at all," said Cocco, who is now 24. "I tried to tell myself I was strong, but deep down inside I was falling apart."

A report released this week by the National Center on Family Homelessness, "America's Youngest Outcasts," finds one in 45 American children 18 and under -- 1.6 million -- live on the street, in homeless shelters, motels or with other families last year.

[RKP5637]

1. How some people can do this to their children and/or children of others is beyond belief. On another

note I was amazed my old HS in a conservative town had voted for the organization of a LGBT club. It was overwhelmingly approved by TPTB.