A Public Ethics Approach Focused on the Lives of Diverse LGBTQ Homeless Youth

Abstract

How can an ethical-analytical framework focused on social equity help illuminate the challenges faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth of color, particularly those who are homeless? The purpose of this article is to engage in just such an analysis of the complex analytical and ethical challenges presented by homelessness among LGBTQ youth. The authors take as our point of departure the premise that trans youth who are also visible minorities may be among the most marginal and most likely to experience homelessness and other threats to well-being. The authors argue that society needs to be concerned with the lives of diverse LGBTQ youth, and particularly those navigating multiple, intersecting forms of marginalization, including homelessness, because they present us with a limit situation that demands an ethical response.

Keywords:

• ethics
• LGBTQ
• minorities
• transgender
• youth

Notes

Throughout this article the authors use the more gender-inclusive term “Latinx” instead of Latino or Latina to denote individuals who are from the Spanish-origin and -speaking countries of North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean. This term includes the descendants of those people of Hispanic origin who resided in what is now the present-day United States long before the United States became a country. AfroLatinx specifically refers to those who are visibly identifiable Latinos of African ancestry (see Jimenez Roman & Flores, 2010).