Michelle Le-Claire was kicked out of her parents’ Caledon East house four times. The offence that prompted Le-Claire’s parents to reject her was neither deliberate, nor an offence at all; as she grew older, it became apparent that Le-Claire was transsexual.

Each time she was thrown out of her parents’ home, the police were called not to reprimand the parents that rejected and abandoned her for her transexuality, but to deal with Michelle herself. Out of those four separate instances when the Le-Claire household was broken and divided, only once did a police officer recommend a hostel to Le-Claire. The youth hostel was some 20 kilometres away from her parents’ home in Brampton. Not a single police officer ever made the offer to drive her there.

The prospect of homelessness – being without a shelter, or a place of comfort and affection – for any youth bears the potential for damage to their health and safety. Being homeless as a youth makes it difficult for individuals to revert to life off the street when they mature.

Studies in Quebec have shown that the mortality rate of homeless youth is 11-times higher than throughout the rest of the population of the province. The same study revealed than the main causes of death for homeless youth in the province is suicide and drug overdose.

An estimated 25% to 40% of street youth in Canada identify somewhere in the spectrum of Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transsexual-Queer (LGBTQ). Considering about 10% of the general population identifies as LGBTQ, there is an overrepresentation among homeless people of LGBTQ youth. This prompts questions about homophobia in and around the city, especially in private residences like the Le-Claires’. These are questions that are too often swept under the rug in gay-friendly cities like Toronto.

After being rejected by her parents for the last time, Le-Claire began sleeping in her truck or in the Subway restaurant where she worked when she was not at school. From time to time, she would stay with friends’ parents, but those were only short-term solutions at best. Without a base or a foundation, it was difficult for Le-Claire to see where her life was going.

Eventually, she turned for help to a school social worker; unfortunately, their meetings resulted in little because the social worker was was unable to connect Le-Claire to any services that would address her specific needs as a homeless, transsexual woman.

“I needed a space where I could express my gender identity without fear. A space that was supportive and encouraging of my transition [between genders],” says Le-Claire, who knows that many youth continue to go through similar experiences to her own. “I needed trans-specific health care and a community to belong to.”

Those conducting research about the situation of LGBTQ homeless in Canadian cities believe that the situation is increasingly dire. They warn that despite the multitude of municipal and other government services created for the community, some of society’s most vulnerable members are still feeling the harsh realities of homophobia. Such biases push LGBTQ youth like Le-Claire away from their homes, away from health and other services, and into the streets.

Dr. Lori Ross is a researcher with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. She works within the Social Equity Research Team. Ross has spent much of her career here, where she investigates how members of the LGBTQ community access mental health and healthcare services.

Through her work with the Social Equity Research Team, Ross recently participated in the Youth Pathways Project, a joint study between CAMH and the University of Toronto. The project is aimed at gauging the quality of life of street youth of various ethnic and sexuality minorities in Toronto. For her part, Dr. Ross interviewed 75 LGBTQ street-involved women. Among other trends, she noted a peculiar and unique sense of marginalization felt by each and every one of the 75 women.

“I think that has a lot to do with the reality of violence and prostitution in street culture,” says Ross. “Often times, these queer women turn to prostitution to make money, but they are forced to compromise their sexuality in order to make money from men.” When the women are not only selling sex for money, but also rejecting their natural sexual orientation, explains Ross, the women develop feelings of disconnection from a community of acceptance.

It’s that search for acceptance that draws many LGBTQ youth across Ontario and even Canada to Toronto, which is a relatively gay-friendly city.