Young, Gay and Homeless in Boystown

Donahoe believes that Boystown “gets you trapped.” For her as for many LGBTQ kids, the neighborhood that started out representing freedom finished by feeling as constricting as the place she’d fled. “I don’t want this life. I don’t want to worry about getting enough cash to pay for my hotel room — which I can’t even reserve because I’m not 21. I want to work in the day and sleep at night. I just want a normal life.”

The Chicago Reader has an eye-opening look at what it’s like to be young, gay and homeless in Boystown, a district in Chicago with one of the largest LGBT communities in the country. Unfortunately, for many of these young people, the only way to secure food and shelter is to start doing sex work — a path that’s that’s riddled with danger, and can involve the complicity of local law enforcement. [via]

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