Daniel Ashley Pierce: Enough!

Thank you to everyone from around America and all over the world for your support in the past several days. This has been a rough time for me and I never imagined that so many people would show such overwhelming compassion and generosity.

It’s important for all of you to know that right now, what I need most is time to think and work through the next steps in my life. I have been working closely with Atlanta-based Lost-n-Found Youth to help figure out what’s next for me. Right now, I’m safe and definitely feel your love all around me. Thank you!

I’ve asked my friends to discontinue donations to the GoFundMe page, but if you would still like to give money and help the LGBTQ youth homeless crisis, please visit the Lost-n-Found Youth website at www.Lost-n-Found.org for more information on how you can make a difference for the many other kids in the world like me...

From Daniel's GoFundMe page.

Fagburn still has questions about that video - which seems a bit 'constructed reality' - but this shows he's a pretty decent chap.

In this survey, 30% of young homeless people in the US identified as gay or lesbian (But regular viewers will know how Fagburn feels about gay surveys).

• Albert Kennedy Trust supports young LGBT people in the UK who have been made homeless or are living in crisis.

New York Times: A Plea To Pope Francis

Your Holiness,

I write to you as a Roman Catholic, a former Benedictine monk and as a gay man who has spent over 30 years serving the homeless, first as a member of the Catholic Worker Movement, and now as the founder and Executive Director of the Ali Forney Center, America’s largest center for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth based in New York City.

I write on behalf of the homeless LGBT youths I serve. I ask you to take urgent action to protect them from the devastating consequences of religious rejection, which is the most common reason LGBT youths are driven from their homes. At the heart of the problem is that the church still teaches that homosexual conduct is a sin, and that being gay is disordered. I hope that if you understand how this

teaching tears families apart and brings suffering to innocent youths, you will end this teaching and prevent your bishops from fighting against the acceptance of LGBT people as equal members of society.

I hope that you will open your eyes and heart to the suffering of our youths. As LGBT youths are finding the courage to speak the truths of their hearts at younger ages, epidemic numbers are being rejected by their families, and driven to homelessness. The number of youths enduring this cruel fate is staggering; last year at least 200,000 LGBT youths experienced homelessness in the United States. LGBT youths make up 40% of the homeless youth population in this country, despite comprising only about 5% of the overall youth population...

From an open letter placed as a full-page ad in the New York Times on Palm Sunday by Faith In America.

May have cost $100,000 or more.

Let's hope his Holiness reads it and adjusts his views accordingly.

• Ali Forney Center and the UK's Albert Kennedy Trust.

Twisted: Unpaid Advertisement

Elefest and DJ Stewart Who? present a one-off screening of Twisted in support of two brilliant charities: The Albert Kennedy Trust and Food Chain.

In 1997 DJ Wayne G and writer Stewart Who? recorded the legendary dance track ‘Twisted’. The Gold-selling, controversial success of this single led to an international tour, taking them to Australia, Rome Pride, White Party Palm Springs, on board a gay Caribbean cruise and to Fire Island NYC.
The film follows their journey through the global gay party scene. Using frank video diaries, it’s a brutally honest and sometimes comedic account of their close friendship & the problems incurred from an excessive life on the road.

Hotel Elephant, London SE1, Saturday October 5th - More blurb and even more detailed details.

Go see - it's basically just two silly old faggots filming themselves taking drugs an absolute hoot!

Thought For The Day: Ian McKellen

“I wasn’t one of those closeted actors who lied about it, but I avoided talking about it. It was easy. Nobody ever asked me. If I had told someone I was gay in an interview, the lawyer would have taken it out anyway because it was considered a terrible thing to say about anyone. Simon Callow would talk about being gay in interviews but it would never be reported. In the end he had to write a book to come out!”

Sir Ian McKellen, interviewed in The Times.
He was promoting the Albert Kennedy Trust video he's appeared in highlighting homelessness amongst LGBT youth.
I'm still waking up and at first I read that he said; "Simon Cowell would talk about being gay in interviews but it would never be reported."
Eh?

Albert Kennedy Trust: AKT Now

• Apparently this is going to be used in a TV campaign - a UK first if so, I think. "AKT support several hundred young people every year who have experienced domestic violence or have been ejected from home just for being brave enough to come out as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Trans to their parents or care giver" - Albert Kennedy Trust.