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Pride Month 2025, we uplift the voices of homeless and formally homeless LGBTQIA+ communities

Posted on by G. Worth

Every June, Pride Month celebrates and honors the LGBTQIA+ community, reflecting on historical milestones, while continuing the fight for true equality. What can often be forgotten in these celebrations is the individuals within this community who live precariously housed, in shelters, or on our streets.

Last year, we discussed the reasons why such a disproportionate number of individuals within the LGBTQIA+ community experience housing instability and homelessness. We wanted to reach out to individuals with lived experience, seeking to continue to understand their experiences, so as to better serve New York’s vulnerable populations.

That’s why for Pride Month this year, we chose to amplify the stories of LGBTQIA+ individuals through creative expression. On a scorching day in late June, in the middle of a New York City heatwave, we invited individuals to the air-conditioned library of New Alternatives, a resource center dedicated to the care and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV+ homeless youth, to share their stories.

Our team, together with Coalition for the Homeless ambassador Taryn Delanie Smith and New Alternatives staff, ran a creative workshop aimed at elevating the voices of formerly and currently homeless LGBTQIA+ community members. We invited participants to write poems, written pieces, and create visual art they felt represented their experience with homelessness in New York City, and we gladly share these pieces with you now.

Before continuing, note that some of the themes explored in these creative works touch on mental illness, abuse, and other traumatic events.

Two people smile at camera. One holds a art piece.
Workshop participant Daniella sharing her work and Coalition ambassador Taryn Delanie Smith
A person showing off their piece of art.
Dante, showing his collage.

A raft of experiences were explored within the workshop, including family rejection, life with a disability, life in the shelter system, future hopes and dreams, and reflecting on personal identity and the meaning of ‘home’.

A poem that reads overcoming my homelessness by Daniella At 21 I was Red Kicked out by my mom made me sad but smell bad. At 22 I was blue went to the hospital made me Sad but was Mad. At 29 I was yellow and fine I overcame overtime that was all behind.
A piece titled overcoming my homelessness by Daniella.

Jordan explored mental health and his journey to find his true self. He created a visual piece titled NO SLEEP 4 U, and also shared a written piece on living with Schizophrenia.

An illustration that suggests stages of an eye, from clear, to filled with tears. Large text in the foreground reads "no sleep 4 u".
A written piece that reads As a schizophrenic person, I learned that it is very difficult to achieve any of my goals alone. I thought I did not need to take medication to succeed. I had a simple yet wholesome job, very few bills to pay and the housing gained from the shelter I was from thanks to my act team. My problem was, I did not understand the depth of my situation or mental illness. I lived in a fantasy world in my mind. Playing games with characters from videogames and musical themes was my bread and butter. I was raised with good meaning from my parents. They wanted the best for me and decided what I should do and how I should be raised (like what I believe parents should have the right to do). I had moments of happiness and sadness like everyone else but the understanding of where my feelings came from was confusing to me. I had always felt some sort of dual presence within me, pulling me apart… I don’t know if it’s my own self doing this or my mind creating wild delusions but everything I have ever done has a serious note of “Traveled path”. When I was a child I was quick to say one day “I want the roads less traveled”. I worked to seek out experiences that interested me, the people that were outcasts and trouble, in search of belonging.

Other participants created visual art. One artist drew their neighborhood in the Bronx. Jhyair explored their human identity in a piece titled Rainbow Behind the Clouds.

A written poem pasted on a pink and white background. The poem reads falling time to get up feeling kinda stuck sometimes you gotta nuck if you buck Or not give a fuck no horse shoes no luck I love to love up & above Let it go away nothing ever stays we love the gays kiss the rainbow back to falling but not down because the reflection always shows my crown
falling time
to get up

feeling kinda stuck
sometimes you gotta
nuck if you buck
Or not give a fuck

no horse shoes
no luck

I love to love
up & above

Let it go away
nothing ever stays
we love the gays
kiss the rainbow

back to falling
but not down

because the reflection
always shows my
crown
A map that outlines a neighborhood in The Bronx, NYC. Landmarks include Western Union, pizza, medicial offices as well as a subway state between White Plain Road and Gun Hill Road.
A piece of art detailing the streets and businesses around Gun Hill Road Station in the Bronx.
Two people in conversation, sitting in a room with bookcases and craft supplies.
A participant brainstorms ideas with a Coalition for the Homeless staff member.

The intersection of identity, race, and abuse was explored by one participant in his piece titled 238/182.

A poem that reads, 238/182 by swatts 238 over 182 I remember the day my world broke my social reintegrating into society was to be that of a very simple entry plan, in a system that I have a responsibility to not only for my seed but for myself I had to traverse it for stability beyond my own life because that is a true love language Bringing my family into the shelter system was the greatest poetic pain, truly like a slave navigating a system that had my story before the pacemaker before the naysayers before what crack did/ what facts did/ what strength did/ what black did I had to abandon strength to learn that blackness isn't a strength I will overcome your foulest deeps will be overdone I've done things for money I can't get away from my black the same black that I fought for the same badge that I stalled for that I hauled for was beginning to eat me at my core and my spaceship was a slave ship my saviors became sadist what you call shelter I call enslavement 238 over 182 You ask me what is my shelter I know no shelter I only knew onward two years and things I still can't forget hopefully I fade before the echoes reach the origin some days I forget that they didn't none of it makes sense and survival is the guilt of the living

It is a privilege to listen to the stories, and experience the creative work of participants from this workshop. We hope that these stories give us all fresh perspective on the lives of LGBTQIA+ individuals who are experiencing or have formally experienced homelessness. If these works have sparked questions or unlocked emotions, feel free to reach out to us across social media, and if you need help, you can call our crisis intervention hotline at 1-888-358-2384.