As a minority, we have to address the needs of our group as a whole and examine which issues are pertinent to everyone. We cannot afford to create divisions within the queer community, especially based on wealth and class.

“45-50 percent of homeless youth in America are queer or trans,” observes Tommi Avicolli Mecca, a queer activist who works in San Francisco’s housing rights. “In San Francisco, the number is considered to be about 30 percent.”

Leslie Ewing, a former employee of California’s only community clinic that provided health care specifically to trans, lesbian and bisexual women, claimed that she was often unable to collect funding from the same people who willingly gave to the gay marriage fund.

—Adrian Rios, “Beyond Marriage”