On the snowy afternoon of December 29th , Koleinu members, Jeremy Schwartz, RoseAnn Hermann, George Hermann, and I with Social Justice Coordinator Alex Weissman, gathered in a bustling Starbucks to prepare for our meeting with Bill Heinzen, Deputy Counselor to Mayor Bloomberg.
The purpose of the meeting was to deliver CBST’s petition with 352 signatures that we collected in a week, protesting the Bloomberg administration’s proposed $1.7 million cuts in funding for LGBTQ homeless youth services and demanding an alternative way to balance the budget that does not rest on the backs of LGBTQ youth.
Heinzen was well informed on the issues, ...
This Tuesday, I joined Koleinu members on the steps of City Hall in solidarity with the Ali Forney Center and LGBTQ homeless youth to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s announced budget cuts to runaway and homeless youth services by $1.6 million -- an action that flies in the face of everything we as Jews believe in .
New York City has an estimated 3800 homeless youth, with approximately 40% of them identifying as identify as transgender, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or queer. There are currently just 75 shelter beds for LGBTQ youth in this city, and that number is about to drop.
Under these cuts, ...
