Cyndi Lauper
doesn’t think near enough attention is being paid to the issue of LGBTI youth
homelessness during this election year in the US.
‘We need to
make these kids our priority now,’ Lauper wrote in a column posted Wednesday (6 April).
‘If we don’t,
where will they be in five, 10, 20 years?’
Lauper,
co-founder of the True Colors Fund, which combats LGBTI youth homelessness,
points out while yet fewer than 7 percent of kids nationwide are LGBTI, up to
40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTI.
Her Fund has
organized what they call #40toNoneDay on 27 April to raise awareness of this
huge discrepancy.
‘We all need to
put our heads together to make sure these young people can get support wherever
they go — and be themselves when they get there,’ she wrote.
Lauper wants to
see more support across the US and cites a few examples of those who are doing
their part: A 24-hour diner owner in North Carolina who gives kids a place to
stay when they have nowhere else to go and a library in Indiana that lets kids
without a permanent address use computers to access lifesaving resources.
‘People often
think that because they don’t work at a homeless shelter, they don’t have a
role to play. The reality is: everyone can make a difference.’
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