Tag Archives: gay youth

TAKE ACTION! – Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo NOT To Cut Funding To Homeless Youth Shelters In New York!

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In what can only be described as another heartless move to balance a states budget.   Gov. Andrew Cuomo is planning to completely end state funding for homeless youth shelters.

Recently homeless youth and Ali Foley Center resident Raciel Castillo sent the following letter to Governor Cuomo and I’d like to share it with you.

Governor Cuomo, I understand that you intend to end the funding from New York State to support youth shelter beds. This means that on July 1st, many of us will be put out of our shelter beds and be thrown out to the streets. I want you to understand that this will put our lives at risk.

It is hard to be a homeless kid, having nowhere to stay and feeling alone and unwanted. For me the worst part was feeling hopeless. I know a bunch of homeless gay kids who have told me that they considered suicide. People think it is just because of bullying in schools, but it is also because of being rejected by our families and forced to make it on the streets. One of my friends tried to throw herself in front of a subway. She said she was tired of being invisible. Thank god some of my friends were able to hold her back.

Governor Cuomo, I want you to understand how terrible things are for homeless kids. I want you to understand how mean and reckless it is to cut support for kids out on the streets. I have lots of friends who have nowhere safe to sleep. I know some who have to prostitute themselves just to have a place to sleep. Kids get beat up and hurt on the streets. The Ali Forney Center is named after a kid who was murdered on the streets. Too many of us were thrown out by parents who refuse to care about us. Please Governor Cuomo, don’t throw us away also.

I BEG ALL OF YOU to sign THIS LETTER to Gov. Cuomo  NOT TO CUT this funding. You need not be a New York resident to raise your voice, because so many of New York City’s homeless kids flee here from other states it is not only up to New Yorkers to help these poor kids. What kind of society do we have when we keep giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and we can’t fight for and fund shelters for homeless CHILDREN?

Please feel free to retweet, repost and pass this along and help these poor kids. 

It’s the shelters and group homes roofs that keeps them alive, but it’s the lack of hope and respect that will kill them.

Andy Bell and Eurasure To Re-Record "A Little Respect" To Benefit Gay Youth and The Hetrick-Martin Institute.

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Andy Bell and Eurasure have will record a new version of their hit single “A Little Respect” with proceeds from the single benefiting The Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk High School, and Cyndi Lauper’s charity the True Colors Fund.

Originally released as a single in 1988 from the Erasure album ‘The Innocents’, ‘A Little Respect’ reached #2 on the Billboard Dance Charts and became a signature tune for the synthpop duo Erasure, as well as becoming an anthem for the gay rights movement.

The new recording of ‘A Little Respect’ will now include a youth chorus from The Hetrick-Martin Institute and it will be released as a download by Mute Records. A new documentary-style video, conceived by filmmaker Jason Stein of Laundry Service Media, will accompany the new recording. Both the single and video – which is intended to include cameos from high-profile supportive friends in the gay-straight community – are scheduled for release in mid-December with proceeds from the download of the music single earmarked to benefit The Hetrick-Martin Institute and the True Colors Fund.

In the wake of the tragic gay bullying incidents and related suicides across the country, Andy Bell was motivated to take action. As one of popular music’s first openly-gay celebrities Bell felt compelled to get involved. “I am honored and moved beyond words to serve as an Ambassador to the The Hetrick-Martin Institute. Every opportunity we have to spread tolerance and compassion must be seized and I will take special pride in doing so on HMI’s behalf.”

Great Band, Great Song, and a for a TRULY GREAT CAUSE.

Thank you Andy Bell and Eurasure.

Watch the original 1988 Music video below……..