Jul 04, 2008  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

Unit, said he would take steps to place the Alston House on the list of locations that GLLU officers regularly visit and monitor.

Watson said he and other THE officials, including longtime D.C. transgender activist Earline Budd, began discussions about a residential facility for gay and transgender youth a little over a year ago, when a growing number of homeless youth began visiting THE’s transgender drop-in facility on North Capitol Street.

Although the North Capitol Street facility opened to provide services for transgender people, gay and lesbian youth began flocking there after hearing about it by word of mouth, Watson said.

“Many of the kids were thrown out of their homes by their parents after the parents found out they are gay or transgender,” Watson said.

He said the parents of one of the male youths accepted for admission into the Alston House, for example, forced the youth to leave their home after they discovered he purchased hormones over the Internet to begin transitioning into a woman.

According to Watson, many of the homeless gay and transgender youth who found their way to the THE drop-in facility reported being treated with hostility at the city’s regular shelters for the homeless.

“We found that in most cases, there were more problems with the staff than with the other residents,” Watson said. “There was a lack of sensitivity on the part of the staff toward GLBT people.”

In response to these and other reports of problems faced by homeless gay and transgender youth, THE officials began holding discussions with city officials, including Christopher Dyer, director of the Mayor’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs.

Watson and Marshall of the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness said Dyer brought a proposal drafted by THE for a gay/trans homeless facility to the attention of Mayor Adrian Fenty, who backed the proposal.

Marshall said that although her organization provided a grant to THE to fund the Alston House, 100 percent of the funds came from the D.C. Department of Human Services, which will monitor the operation of the house and determine whether to renew the funding on a yearly basis.

Wanda Alston, in whose honor the house is named, served as the city’s first director of the Office of LGBT Affairs under former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams. Prior to being named to that post, Alston had been recognized as a prominent gay rights and feminist leader and had served as executive assistant to National Organization for Women President Patricia Ireland in the 1990s.

Alston was murdered in March 2005 in her Northeast D.C. home not far from the new shelter. Police said the motive was robbery and was unrelated to her sexual orientation.