Chasten Glezman ButtigiegVerified account

During the last year I’ve visited close to 100 LGBTQ equality centers and homeless service providers across the country. I’ve listened to stories about the lack of access to care, mental health services, community, and housing.

I sat in a living room in California with a young, black, trans woman who had been shuffled through the foster care system wondering why it wasn’t easier to find a home and stability on her own as she started planting roots with a chosen family and community.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma we learned the story of a young man who was turned away from his home and walked barefoot, in the middle of the night, into downtown Tulsa because he knew the equality center was a safe place, even if he didn’t know where he’d sleep next.

In Indianapolis, at the only safe transitional housing available exclusively for homeless LGBTQ youth, service providers only have a few beds to offer as the waiting list continues to grow at an alarming rate, and a majority of vulnerable LGBTQ Hoosier youth remain unhoused.