Sometimes social media just isn’t enough for me. I
appreciate the sentiment of a well-crafted post and I know these forms of
communication provide support, but in the hours following the tragedy at Pulse
in Orlando, I wanted to act, which is why a meeting with Kim Hunt of the Pride
Action Tank came at just the right time.
Through my conversation with Kim, I learned of the
Chicago Youth Storage Initiative (CYSI), an effort that came out of the Chicago
Summit on LGBT Homelessness in 2014 and aims to give homeless youth safe and
secure spaces to store their belongings. The CYSI report notes that, “for young
people experiencing homelessness and housing instability, access to safe and
secure storage options for personal belongings…is a daily, often hourly,
stressor.”
As Kim described the CYSI, it made all the sense in the
world: to relieve the burden that LGBTQ homeless feel of having to carry their
personal belongings with them all the time. And it’s not just physical items
that these youth have with them. In addition to personal burdens (e.g. being
kicked out of their homes because they’re queer), they may feel anxiety about
living in a society where even a safe space like Pulse may not be so safe after
all.
As a community walking in the way of Jesus, we can help ease
those burdens by speaking words of hope, but also by living in ways that let them know that, as Lin-Manuel Miranda said at the Tony Awards Sunday night, “love is love
is love is love is love. It cannot be killed or swept aside.“
As a believer in resurrection, I, too,
believe that this love cannot be killed. And I will do all I can to make sure
that this is the message these youth—and all our LGBTQ brothers and
sisters—store in their hearts.