County Has Problems in Housing Runaways : Gay Teens Complain of Treatment

The kids called him a “fag” and his mother beat him when she discovered the truth about her 13-year-old son’s homosexuality. So Chris ran away from his Los Angeles home, hoping to find people who would understand and accept him.

But when he ended up in a county juvenile hall, he was greeted “like I was a criminal. It was terrible,” Chris said.

“Some of the guards (probation officers) were good, but most were homophobic. They’d do things like call you ‘sweetie,’ ” he said.

There are others like Chris in the county’s juvenile halls and other detention centers. Rosie, an abused youngster recently taken out of her Los Angeles home by the county, ended up in Central Juvenile Hall.

‘They Call You Lesbian’

“They (the juveniles) call you lesbian and act like you have some kind of disease,” the 16-year-old said. “Sometimes they put you in your room and won’t let you out.”

Nearly half of the thousands of homeless runaways who come to the Los Angeles area are homosexual, according to a survey done by Teen Canteen, a downtown shelter.

Many end up in the streets. Others wind up at county juvenile halls or camps, where one specialist estimates that from 12% to 25% of the approximately 3,100 youngsters in those facilities are homosexual.

Despite the large numbers, social workers and others involved with helping homosexual youths say, the county is ill-equipped and poorly trained for dealing with such youngsters.

“The staff is not only not trained, they’re frightened” of homosexual juveniles, said Teresa DeCrescenzo, a former probation officer now active with the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center.

‘Full of Misinformation’

She said probation officers are “full of misinformation” and sometimes feel they must talk youngsters out of their homosexuality.

“Homosexual juveniles need to be in an atmosphere where they’re not going to be cut off by peers or, to be frank, staff who say ‘I don’t want to bother with that queer stuff,’ ” she said.

“We’re not talking about advocacy (of a certain sexuality),” DeCrescenzo added. “We’re just talking about a place for them to explore their feelings.”

About 12% of the general population is homosexual, she said. But the percentage tends to be higher in the county’s three juvenile halls and 15 camps because many inmates are runaways driven from home by sexuality-related problems.

Probation officers say they try to be sensitive to the needs of homosexual juveniles and that they are taking special training for that reason.

Richard Shumsky, president of the county’s probation officers union, said staff members do not try to change a youngster’s homosexuality. But he added, “There may be a natural inclination to try to counsel the kid, to tell the kid he has more than one option.

“It’s difficult to know if 12- or 13-year-olds are capable of making final decisions.”