in the spirit of the season, a little carol by the folks from food not bombs atlanta. this song was sung last year outside a bed and breakfast owned by an atlanta politician who supported the city’s anti-panhandling ordinance.

though the house is just starting to become a reality, the idea for it sprung forth almost 7 months ago. and certainly, the need for a living space that welcomes transgender homeless people has been around for longer than many can imagine.

seven months ago, i was a caseworker at a men’s overflow shelter in atlanta. one morning, a young woman, new to the city, came into my office and asked me to help her find shelter for the night. she handed me her out-of-state id so i could make a copy for her file. when i looked at the information next to her smiling, well-posed  picture, a different name than the one she had given me was printed next to a sex field that read “m”. i spent the rest of the day trying to find a single placement for an HIV negative transgender woman. nothing. not in atlanta. not in decatur. basically, not in georgia.

if this client had been HIV positive or a few years younger, there would have been a placement. but since the situation was what it was, i had to tell her to be safe on the streets of atlanta or go back to the city she left in hopes of something better. the streets are the only real option we’re giving trans women. of course, once this life without shelter or income forces these women into sex work, they will be demonized. but if they contract HIV doing this work or while sitting in jail for this survival crime, then there will be shelter for them. kind of sounds like genocide because it kind of is. force trans women into a dangerous situation that lends to abuse and disease and then, once things are at their worst, offer them a space.

the links posted in addition to this note explain what’s been/is still happening.

isn’t it time to denouce the injustice that kills the poor?