Bloomberg's Budget Cuts Fly in the Face of All that is Jewish
This Tuesday, I joined Koleinu members on the steps of City Hall in solidarity with the Ali Forney Center and LGBTQ homeless youth to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s announced budget cuts to runaway and homeless youth services by $1.6 million -- an action that flies in the face of everything we as Jews believe in .
New York City has an estimated 3800 homeless youth, with approximately 40% of them identifying as identify as transgender, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or queer. There are currently just 75 shelter beds for LGBTQ youth in this city, and that number is about to drop.
Under these cuts, funding for drop-in centers will be severely slashed and street outreach will eventually be eliminated. News of these proposed cuts came not long after Mayor Bloomberg proclaimed the month of October as LGBTQ Youth Empowerment Month -- and after the Mayor’s Commission on Runaway and Homeless Youth made a strong case for an expansion of services .
At the press conference, I saw one young person carrying a sign stating, “It Got Worse.” As a queer and trans community, we have spent the past few months telling our youth that “It Gets Better.” What will we do to make it get better?
The situation is urgent and demands immediate action from all of us.
How to take action in just 5 minutes:
- Write to the Mayor at http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/contact_the_mayor.html
(These messages do get read. I received a letter in the mail from the Commissioner of Youth and Community Development just a couple of days after I emailed the Mayor.)
- Call the Mayor's budget office at 212.788.5900 and say:
"Hi, my name is ______ and I'm a member of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, New York's LGBTQS synagogue, and a resident of New York City. I'm calling to express my concern about the proposed budget cuts to DYCD, particularly how they will have a disproportionate impact on LGBTQ runaway and homeless youth. I encourage Mayor Bloomberg to consider alternative budget cuts, like those proposed by Speaker Quinn."
- Send the petition to your family and friends through e-mail and Facebook
