Transgender and homeless? The religious right doesn't care about you

Black Tsunami

September 28, 2016 

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The American Family Association's fake news site One News Now is kicking at the transgender community yet again. But this time, they have chosen a particularly vulnerable segment:

Christian-based homeless ministries are expressing concern over the latest mandate from the Obama administration that allows men to be housed with women.

Housing and Urban Development has finalized and issued a rule that homeless shelters that receive federal funds must allow transgender men to be housed with women in homeless shelters on an equal basis. Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America tells OneNewsNow that her friends in Christian homeless ministries are concerned about the obvious issues of privacy and safety, but there's more. 

“Shelters need the freedom to make decisions independently on a case-by-case basis,” she explains. “And any time the federal government takes that ability away from them, they create hazards for everyone involved. At bottom, these are Christian ministries that must stay true to their core values.”

First of all, in spite of the claim that Christian-based homeless ministries are up in arms about this new rule, the article interviews not even one representative from these ministries.  The article is nothing more than an interview with Nance.

In addition, there is no genuine information in this so-called article about homelessness in the transgender community. So allow me to provide some.
According to the National Center for Transgender Equality:

One in five transgender people in the United States has been discriminated when seeking a home, and more than one in ten have been evicted from their homes, because of their gender identity. Homelessness is also a critical issue for transgender people; one in five transgender individuals have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives.
 . . . Family rejection and discrimination and violence have contributed to a large number of transgender and other LGBQ-identified youth who are homeless in the United States – an estimated 20-40% of the more than 1.6 million homeless youth. Unfortunately, social service and homeless shelters that work with this population often fail to culturally and appropriately serve transgender homeless people, including denying them shelter based on their gender identity; inappropriately housing them in a gendered space they do not identify with; and failing to address co-occurring issues facing transgender homeless adults and youth. 

It would seem to me that a core value of a Christian homeless ministry would be taking care of the homeless, no matter who they may be. And I am betting that this is the case. It's just too bad that One News Now and Nance  are too busy exploiting the false "transgender predatory" meme to genuinely talk about the issue.

Read more articles from Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, here.