When your gender is "other"

Homelessness among transgendered individuals is common. The most recent research (not so recent anymore) revealed that one in five transgendered individuals experienced homelessness and one in four transgendered individuals were not happy with their current housing status.

Shelters Slowly Adapt to Help Transgendered Homeless
The Associated Press

Twelve years heading the Salvation Army's downtown homeless shelter had done little to prepare Janeane Schmidt for the recent night when a soft-spoken biological male transitioning into a female walked in.

Schmidt didn't want to refuse someone in need. Having seen few such cases, however, and with limited space that winter night, she wasn't sure where to place the transgender woman. The shelter has space for homeless men and women but not anyone in between.

"Rather than turn them away, we give them a cot," said Schmidt, whose staff allowed the woman to stay a week in the shelter's lounge — the only space they could find.

This solution isn't ideal but for many shelters it is revolutionary. As recently as 2003 it was reported that some shelters in Atlanta actually posted signs that said "No Transvestites." I used to volunteer at a shelter where I co-ran a book group. After one of the sessions one of the staff pulled the other volunteer and I aside to let us know that one of the individuals who attended the group was transgendered. We didn't need to know that, we were just spending time with these people and weren't involved clinically. But he thought it was appropriate to "out" the individual, probably because he was uncomfortable and didn't understand. This is where the importance of sensitivity training (as horrible and cliche as it sounds) and reminding staff of confidentiality. He wouldn't run around telling the volunteers that someone was HIV positive (I hope) and it wasn't appropriate for him to reveal this information either.

If accepting people into programs and offering a cot in the day room is the best we can do right now so be it, it's safer than the streets and it's within the view of staff so in some situations it may be safter than the sleeping quarters. But a cot in the dayroom is still segregation and we need to strive for better.

For more information about making shelters trans-friendly check out Transitioning Out Shelters: A Guide for Making Homeless Shelters Safe for Transgender People