Effacing The Male - Homeless in Portland: A deepening crisis on the streets of America - They can mention Trans people, elderly people and ""minorities"", but not that the MAJORITY of homeless are still male. Male disposability in action.

my_name_is_gato · 2018-10-08T12:04:55+00:00

But, but, 25% of the homeless population is female. What a crisis!! /s

thrway_1000 · 2018-10-09T06:20:58+00:00

i_reckon_not · 2018-10-09T07:38:49+00:00

There is probably an element of realpolitik in play when it comes to activism and advocacy for the homeless and who you showcase when you want to elicit empathy and sympathy. If you want to make real progress on it - be it via lobbying the government, trying to raise community awareness in order to shore up support for this or that measure when it comes time to vote or by directly appealing for charity - you have to find a person or group of people who the punters will care about and feel compelled to help. And that ain't men. Pointing out that something primarily affects men or that men are affecting by in worse ways is probably the best way I can think of to have that issue dismissed, minimised or "put on the back burner" because there are more important things to worry about.

I understand why it's infuriating at times that this is way it always goes, but as long as everyone is vigilant to make sure that any programmes and funding that are allocated for homelessness are not distributed based on identity category but universally to help all those who are homeless - then the vast majority of it will go to helping men, regardless of how the initial appeal was spun. That is not a forgone conclusion however (when I was sleeping rough many years ago, I was routinely rejected from apparently non-gendered homeless shelters because they only had "beds for women left"), and for that reason I think men's advocates in this space would be better off focusing their energy on watching where and how any funding and other resources are used on the ground rather than getting too hung up on the rhetoric.

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