Cleo Wade’s latest poem published in the New York Times references a new study by The Williams Institute UCLA School of Law that has confirmed what advocates for LGBTQ teenagers have known for sometime: a high number of homeless young adults in the US are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer.

The report, sponsored by the Palette Fund, True Colors Fund, and Williams Institute, is based on information provided by 381 respondents from 354 agencies working with youngsters and  homeless-related services.

In America, up to 1.6 million youth experience homelessness each year. The statistics for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) homeless youth are even more shocking, as this group represents up to 40% of all young people experiencing homelessness but are only 9% of the youth population.

Except from New York Times poem by Cleo Wade:

Sometimes I get up because

I know Nazis are planning to march again,

because Flint still has no clean drinking water.

Sometimes I get up

Because I know that 40 percent of our

homeless population are LGBTQ youths and

there is something wrong with that.

Sometimes I get up

Because I don’t want to have to teach my

children how to do nuclear bomb drills, or

what to wear to avoid sexual harassment or

how to behave to avoid a “justifiable shooting”

by the police.

Sometimes I get up

Because I hugged Trayvon Martin’s mother

last year and told her I would keep going.

Read the full poem here.

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