By Taylor Barrack, Council for the Homeless
Flowers are blooming, the rain is finally dissipating, and the imminent risk of forest fires lingers just outside of the city…PRIDE MONTH HAS ARRIVED!
Driving to a local shopping mall, I have the radio playing in my car. As I scan through the stations, the commercial breaks are full of various companies, businesses, stations, etc. cherishing the LGBTQ+ community and boasting about their involvement in pride month. Strolling by the storefronts, the windows are full of rainbows. I wish I could feel happy about the “representation.”
Like most things in life, the bottom line is the ultimate factor. This representation revolves around commodifying the deeply internal struggle of others. I suppose the plastering of rainbows on t-shirts, beer cans, and designer purses does remind the general population that us queers exist. But what it doesn’t do is teach.
To really, truly know something, to finally have no doubt, is freeing. One thing that we can never really, truly know is what someone else has been through. What they have felt, seen, heard; from a person’s deepest sorrows to their greatest joys. It’s easy to dismiss the experience of another person. It’s difficult to stretch your mind to uncomfortable depths.
At Council for the Homeless, I spend 40 hours a week listening to and reading about the experiences and feelings of our houseless neighbors. To have the privilege of carrying these stories with me is the most humbling thing in my life. Sometimes I get to hear people’s biggest dreams and other times their most painful memories.
There are many false and unsubstantiated assumptions that are made about people experiencing homelessness. I will try and give a little insight into what’s really going on out there.
There is an entire spectrum of reasons why someone may be experiencing homelessness. Someone may have gotten into a car accident. Injured and out of work, they could no longer afford their home. A single event – some would call it bad luck. Someone else may come from generational homelessness, where systems have failed a family for decades. Systems designed to ensure that mass destruction caused by the race war and the class war is never, ever put on trial.
And then there is a laundry list of reasons that can keep a person in the trenches of houselessness.
It MIGHT be easier to “get a job” if there were places to shower, do laundry, write and print an application or résumé. It MIGHT be possible to “get a job” if you had a stable and accessible place to receive mail, so you’d be able to get your replacement ID that was stolen while you were sleeping.
Have you ever been tired? Like really, truly tired? I don’t mean the tiredness that sets in after a crazy and wild night out. Or the delirium you may feel after pulling an all-nighter in a university library, cramming for an exam. I’m talking about the tiredness you feel after walking the most well lit streets you can find, all night. You’re walking, and not sleeping, because you don’t feel safe sleeping anywhere. So you nap throughout the day, because you feel safe for 10 minutes at a time in the daylight, or because you naturally doze off purely from unconscionable exhaustion.
If you’ve ever lost a loved one, there were probably those days that you just couldn’t peel yourself out of bed. Maybe you got up to pee and grab a glass of water, but then would dive right back into that big, cozy bed. Now imagine doing that outside. Imagine doing it in January, after 10 straight days of rain. And you’re drowning in grief. The sadness, anger, and longing convince you that you’re suffocating. You’re cold, damp, and it’s miserable. You’re also tired. Like really, truly tired. But “get a job” is the impossible expectation you face.
Oh yeah…let’s bring this back to PRIDE!
Let’s add to the story getting kicked out of your parents’ house because you literally have no choice over who you’re attracted to. The parents who should be leading with unconditional love for their child, but instead are using their religion to justify moral and physical condemnation. Let’s include getting told you’re crazy/unwanted/weird/damaged because you’re transgender. You feel a discomfort so deep in your bones that you had to go through the mental gymnastics of analyzing your biological sex. I can personally attest that those gymnastics do not earn you a medal. Just a lot of medical bills.
Our houseless neighbors need your support. Our queer, of color, elderly and young, disabled, and/or veteran, houseless neighbors need you to think about them, care about them, in June, as well as the other 11 months of the year.
You want to spend money? You can live happily without that rainbow mug.
Instead, donate to the organizations below for Pride (and all year long). And make it an amount that makes you uncomfortable. When shopping local, which you should be doing as much as you possibly can, search for LGBTQ+ owned and operated businesses using GayPDX. Don’t lose sight that Pride started as a riot, and start fighting on behalf of your queer houseless neighbors.