A March 21, 2006 Village Voice article, “Gay and Loud,” barely scratches the surface of the problems faced by one of the most disenfranchised groups in New York City. The piece is about the hundreds of queer teens, predominantly people of color, who hang out at night on Christopher Street and the nearby pier. West Village residents have been complaining about the noise and public racket the kids make, which was addressed by closing the pier earlier. So, FIERE and the kids are trying to fight back and keep access to one of NYC’s few safe spaces for queer youth. The pier has been this kind of space for years.

Ask any social worker, ACS worker, or civil rights lawyer in New York and they’ll tell you that queer youth, especially those who are people of color, have a disproportionately higher rate of experiencing violence, discrimination, of suicide and homelessness than other teens. There’s a very good reason why those kids are on the pier making noise. They have nowhere else to go. Unless a queer teen of color is murdered and dismembered, as with Rashawn Brazell, the bisexual boy whose murder is being investigated, big media barely touches on the very real problems gay teens face from hate crimes to being kicked out of their homes, then to facing discrimination within the social services worlds they have to enter after either running away from abusive homes or being disowned.

In “Gay and Loud,” Lombardi writes: “‘All of a sudden,’ says Elaine Goldman, of the Christopher Street Block Association, ‘kids are screaming about how they have nowhere to go, and adults are wondering about social services.’” Exactly, yes social services, where are they? I guess The Voice is usually on top of covering these issues, but where’s the Times? I’m sure someone in their several hundred person staff is looking for more to feed the beast, but somehow, this huge story hasn’t quite been covered.

GLAAD has a “People of Color Media Program”, that monitors mainstream events and media for fair and inclusive representation of LGBT people of color. At least someone has an eye out.