By Serena Solomon
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Beau says he was forced to leave his Brooklyn home when, at 13, he told his family he was gay.
"When I came out, I was kicked out," he said.
Now 16, he told his story of living on the street and virtually becoming a prostitute for food, clothing and shelter during a public hearing Thursday, which is charged with developing a strategy for addressing the needs of lesbian, gay and transgendered youths.
Beau, who has since partly reconciled with his parents, suggested establishing a youth services center on the piers in the West Village, long known as a gathering place for gay teens.
"LGBTQ youths need a safe place to unite," Beau testified at the hearing. "If there is actually a foundation built on the pier we would have safe place."
Fierce, a New York organization that works with LGBTQ young people of color, is campaigning for a 24-hour drop-in center to be included in any future redevelopment plans for Pier 40. Lack of funding has prevented the project from moving forward.
"We want all types of services under one roof," Rickke Mananzala, executive director of Fierce, told the commission. "There has been a trend for services to be pushed to the outer boroughs."
Mananzala said even on the coldest of nights, people can be found on the pier, and when the park closes at 1 a.m those who are homeless are left to roam the city streets, taking shelter in parks and subways.
According to Mananzala, the project has already been endorsed by Community Board 2 and Christine Quinn, the openly gay Council Speaker in whose district the youth center would be located.
In a 2007 study, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force estimated 20 to 40 percent of New York's 20,000 homeless youths identified as LGBTQ. The study also found that a large cause of homelessness was family conflict specifically caused by a young person disclosing their sexuality.
