This week the New York Times ran two articles on homeless and runaway teens. One of the articles looked at the fact that a lot of homeless teens survive by selling sex. As the article explains,
"Nearly a third of the children who flee or are kicked out of their homes each year engage in sex for food, drugs or a place to stay...But this kind of dangerous barter system can quickly escalate into more formalized prostitution, when money changes hands. And then, child welfare workers and police officials say, it becomes extremely difficult to help runaways escape the streets. Many become more entangled in abusive relationships, and the law begins to view them more as teenage criminals than under-age victims."
When as many as 40% of homeless teens are gay, lesbian bisexual or transgender, this is a really important issue for the gay community.
Without any sort of family life to fall back on (one study found that over 25% of GLBT teens who come out to parents are kicked out of their homes), these teens are particularly vulnerable.
Kids who are on the street selling sex are rarely empowered sex workers making conscious decisions about what they want to do with their bodies. For the most part, they are engaged in prostitution, or survival sex, because there are seemingly no other options.
However, it is really important for gay teens to realize that depending on where they are based, they may have more services available to them than they realize.
In many of the cities where homeless or runaway gay teens gravitate, there are organizations designed specifically to help kids like them obtain counseling, find housing, get out of sex work, get help for substance abuse, or access legal advice.
The Ali Forney Center has a great resource list you should check out. There is also a lot of helpful information on the website of the Safe Schools Coalition.