Jim Obersifel talks about LGBTQ+ rights 10 years after Supreme Court ruling
Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that legalized gay marriages across the country, looks back on its impact in a decade.
Train No. 7 was the warmest place where Iden Campbell McCollum slept.
He took the subway to work at Burger King and spent many nights looping the route to flushing, curling up on a heater that provided a short rest from the winter in New York City.
At the time, he was a recent high school graduate, aging from foster care, homeless and battling severe depression.
His struggle was exacerbated by confusion over his gender identity. He didn’t know trans people and had no language to describe what he was going through, but he knew he was different and his parents wouldn’t accept him.
“I really didn’t have a family, mainly because they thought I was a lesbian,” says Campbell McCollum, now 57. “I had never seen anyone else like me, so I had no one to talk about it.”
Decades have passed since McCollum’s experience on the streets of New York City, but to many LGBTQ+ young people, his story may be creepyly familiar.
LGBTQ+ youth today continue to face similar challenges, including the disproportionate risk of homelessness, research shows that most often due to family rejection by their identity. They make up 7% of the youth population, while LGBTQ+ youth account for 40% of youth experiencing homelessness in the United States. Advocates who grew up tackling these same challenges still rampify the stigma of homeless youth, and this issue requires more visibility in urgently.
LGBTQ+ youth face more than twice the risk of becoming homeless
Dr. Colette Auerswald, a professor of public health at the University of California, Berkeley, says youth experience homelessness for systemic reasons, including the juvenile justice system, poverty and family substance use. LGBTQ+ youth are more than twice as likely to experience peer homelessness, according to a study by the University of Chicago Chapin Hall.
“The reason why young people are homeless is beyond their control and people have to understand that,” Orrswald says.
For Marcelle Labrecque, leaving the 18-year-old home didn’t feel like a choice. Labrecque’s conservative hometown of “people of color and showing all sorts of strange trends,” socially implied you as “unwelcome.”
“My parents gave me the ultimate: ‘Go and get help for it, or leave’,” says Lovelek, who uses their pronouns. They purchased a bus ticket to New York with a refund check from the school textbook.
“We had to survive,” Loverek added.
According to Auerswald, homeless research, endemic to youth, is essential. While numbers like point-in-time counts and housing inventory counts provide insight, Orrswald warns that it is not a critical measure, as it was created primarily to count single homeless adults.
Mental health gaps contribute to LGBTQ+ homelessness
For Campbell McCollum, depression and suicidal thoughts were a lifelong struggle.
“I was depressed because there was no saying, ‘Mom, I think I’m a boy.’ I couldn’t put that into words to her,” says McCollum. “My depression started at a very young age, but it was environmental because of the abuse, not just gender.”
LGBTQ+ young people are less likely to access mental health care than their peers, citing affordability and not wanting permission from their parents. According to a 2024 US National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Youth, nearly half of transgender boys and men are worried that if they access care, someone will call the police or be hospitalized unwillingly.
One night, police officers saw McCollum nod in the corner of the train. She gave him $20 and an address for the New York location of Covenant House, an adult shelter for ages 16 to 24. Once there he had the opportunity to explore his identity in a safe space for the first time.
Covenant House secured a part-time job and reconnected with his parents, and eventually saved him enough to move to North Carolina, where he reconnected with his mother.
Black transgender and nonbinary youth who report the highest indicators of poor mental health are at the highest risk of youth homelessness.
Derrick Matthews, director of the research sciences at the Trevor project, called it “two issues,” where vulnerable groups are more likely to experience homelessness and the impact of homelessness tends to worsen.
Before moving to New York, Loverek only met three other black people. While in the city they were introduced to black and strange spaces while working at Hell’s Kitchen. They worked on season 2 of the popular FX TV show “Pose.”
“We were very raw, very realistic, very intense discussions, so if we were primarily in a white space, we might not be able to feel comfortable sharing,” Lovelek says.
LGBTQ+ Youth Navigate Trump Administration’s Cuts to Professional Care
LGBTQ+ supporters say concerns about queer homeless youth have been growing amid cuts in funding for LGBTQ+ care under the Trump administration.
On June 17, the administration instructed 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to end its specialist services for LGBTQ+ youth within the next month. Since its launch in 2022, nearly 1.3 million LGBTQ+ people have sought support from the hotline via calls, texts or online chat. The TREVOR Project, which accounts for 50% of the hotline volume, says the move is “devastating.”
The Supreme Court also upheld a ban on gender-affirming care for the state of Tennessee. In her opposition, Judge Sonia Sotomayor said the court would “waive transgender children and their families on a political whim.”
“The fact that we take away the services that could be protected certainly means that more young people suffer harm and death,” says Orrswald.
What is the answer?
Currently 29 years old, LabRecque is a full-time performer and theater consultant. Services Accessed at Covenant House – Learning how to fill out scholarship forms, purchasing dance shoes, obtaining legal support, changing names and becoming more affirming your identity has helped me continue my musical theatre education and training from the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
“I’m only here today because of resources and to make the most of all the programs, every opportunity,” Lovelek says.
Public health experts say access to these services during the homeless is essential to stop the pipeline from adult homelessness. According to Auerswald, about half of the 55 or more people who have experienced homelessness first experienced homelessness as minors and young people.
Auerswald warns that no one will see homelessness and unstable housing. That could mean sleeping in the car, couch surfing for long periods of time, or relying on a shelter.
“They want the same things other young people want,” Orrswald said of these young people, adding that they are working on the homelessness in search of opportunities to develop education, stable relationships and professional identities. “If you’re doing it and you don’t have a place to live, it’s really hard.” “I think they’re resilient and people really have to appreciate it,” she added.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling, texting or chatting, or texting 741741 by texting the 988 Suicide and Crisis Text Line.
Rachel Hale’s role in covering youth mental health at USA Today is supported by a partnership with Pivotal Ventures and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editor input. Contact her at rhale@usatoday.com @RachelLeighhale x.
