"We write not only about different things; we also write differently.“ (Brecht) Queer Youth and Knowledge of Place Joseph Dial, Ph.D., English Instructor Queer Foundation Effective Writing and Scholarships Program Seattle Central Community College 3213 W. Wheeler St., #145 Seattle, WA I discovered the emptiness of a life without the safety of unconditional love. I felt a vast void in surviving within a world that suddenly seemed like a dark abyss. I felt alone. Hopeless. Homes serve as places of security and hope. Hope fills the void of teenager's heart, which, in its initial naivety, needs direction and guidance. Without hope, individuals resort to ways to gain back their spirit or they give into their despair. Suicide springs from this loss of hope. At a rate of 60 percent of teenage suicides, hopeless queers account for a disproportionate amount of suicides in relation to suicides committed by heterosexual teens. Intolerance, which solely contributes to queer homelessness, is therefore in direct correlation with the deaths of youth—queer youth. At the loss of home, there is also a loss of hope. from "Magic Mirrors" by Jason Brown For both academics and activists, "queer" gets a critical edge by defining itself against the normal rather than the heterosexual.... The insistence on "queer"—a term initially generated in the context of terror—has the effect of pointing out a wide field of normalization, rather than simple intolerance, as the site of violence. Michael Warner, Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minn. Press, 1993), xxvi. [Same-sex love] has never been, however, part of the way in which a society regulated itself.... Queer space is not about building homes, which are some of the simplest building blocks of our physical environment. That does not mean that queers do not or did not live in houses, but the notion of a retreat toward an incubator of values that perpetuate themselves in children has never been a central part of the queer experience.... queer space has rarely been about corner offices, assembly lines, or bureaucratic palaces. Because same-sex love often presents itself in drag, with one partner playing the part society has assigned to the other sex (though such roles might be arbitrary), it has a hard time putting on a simple, conventional facade. Aaron Betsky, Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire (New York: William Morrow, 1997), 19. [queer] space as practiced place Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Los Angeles: Univ. of Calif. Press, 1984), these programs seem to exist primarily in large cities. There are many queer homeless youth in rural areas who also need help. Even though the population of queer homeless youth is not known anywhere and allocating just enough resources for an unknown population is a tough job, helping these teens can only help society. These teens will continue to grow with the experiences of homelessness in their minds and some will never even leave the streets. Every adolescent needs stability in their lives and there are few things less stable than homelessness. from "Tens of Thousands of Queer Homeless Teens" by Julianne Maynus “Home was where I wanted to be, because at home resided my childhood heart... Why should queer youth suffer?... We begin to search for new homes in the midst of a harsh world. We rebuild our hope. We face our fears for the future.” from "Magic Mirrors" by Jason Brown This is, essentially, a strategy of genocide, however cleverly it may be disguised. People need a place in order to live. To deny a place is to deny life. Mindy Thompson Fullilove, The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place (Lincoln: Univ. of Neb. Press, 1999), 20. Jason Brown is a scholarship winner in the Queer Foundation’s 2006 High School English Essay Contest.