Erica Kay-Webster, Founder of the Foundation
For International Justice talks about the epidemic of homeless LGBT youth in
this country with Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of
OUTTAKE VOICES™. According to a study from the Williams Institute at UCLA
School of Law approximately 40 percent of homeless young adults in the
U.S. identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender with 46 percent
of these children committing suicide by the time they reach their 26th
birthday. On Friday April 17th at the Marriot Copley Place in Boston the
first annual gala will take place to benefit the Promise Place School
an initiative of the Foundation for International Justice. The Promise
Place School will include a residential educational complex for homeless
LGBTQ youth ages 12-24 in Massachusetts that will combine classroom
settings with a safe home environment. The school will be staffed by
qualified professionals, offering services including a safe and stable
home environment, a healthy diet, clothing, medical services, mental
health services, substance abuse education, recreational and physical
fitness programs and HIV/STD testing. All students will be offered
education from 6th grade and up including a GED program, guidance
counseling, life skills education and vocational skills training,
college prep classes, career counseling, full continuing education
scholarships and more. We talked to Erica about her inspiration for
Promise Place School and her spin on our LGBT issues.
When asked what her personal commitment is to LGBT civil rights
Kay-Webster stated,
“Foundation For International Justice mission is our commitment to
addressing human rights violations and rooting out discrimination
wherever it occurs through compassion and peaceful action that includes
advocacy, education and promoting social justice. Although I am a member
of the LGBT community I don’t believe that discrimination in any form
should exist and I truly believe in advocating for a human amendment to
the constitution to end discrimination on any level. Whether it’s the
LGBT community, whether it’s the Hispanic community, immigrants coming
into this country, women’s rights, it encompasses all of that and we
continue to work on that front to move towards
a greater future. When the Constitution was written it was written by
men for men primarily and it’s time to see a fully inclusive amendment
because we know that in the LGBT community equal rights have been moving
forward at such an incredible pace now that it’s not going to be very
long until we see full equal rights. The question becomes who’s the next
group that’s going to be picked on? Our mission is to make sure no one
ever has to go through those experiences again in this country and that
they’re fully protected under the law.”
Erica Kay-Webster knows homeless first hand after being cast out by her
family at age 15 because of her status as a transgender individual and
found herself on the streets of New York City enduring unspeakable
hardships and attempting suicide twice by the age of 17. Kay-Webster is
also a veteran of the Stonewall Inn riots in New York City in 1969 which
were the catalyst for the modern LGBT movement. Promise Place School’s
1st Annual Spring Gala on Friday, April 17th in Boston will be honoring
Congressman Joe Kennedy, Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, Diego Sanchez, Carl
Sciortino, Joe Finn and Elisabeth Jackson for their continued support of
the mission to help homeless LGBTQI youth.
For Info & Tix: promiseplaceschool.org
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