Group Snapshot
FIERCE!

FIERCE's Community

Our constituency is TLGBTSQQ low-income youth of color, especially those who have formed community around the Christopher Street Pier area.  Our members are primarily from poor and working-class backgrounds, and the majority are marginally-housed or homeless youth.  They self-identify as transgender, male, female, Two Spirit, bi-gendered, queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual and non-identifying. Members range in age from 13 to 24 year old. FIERCE! youth represent the entire spectrum of communities of color in New York City; they are predominantly African-American, Caribbean-American and Latino/a, as well as Asian-American, Pacific Islander and Native-American. Many of the youth involved in FIERCE! suffer from emotional difficulties resulting from profound life traumas, despite being visibly able-bodied. And many deal with a range of physical health issues, most notably being directly affected by HIV and AIDS.

Current statistics on the vulnerabilities of LGBTSTQ youth demonstrate how imperative it is for members of this community to discover and understand their rights, and to develop the tools and sense of empowerment to organize to defend them.  According to the Empire State Coalition, a policy and research organization that focuses on homeless youth issues, at least 35% of New York City’s 22,000 homeless youth are LGBTSTQ. Significant numbers of LGBTSTQ youth move in and out of the foster care and juvenile detention systems, or are unable to stay in school because they face daily harassment and violent homophobia and transphobia in school classrooms, corridors, and yards. Additionally, an uncounted (and, because of the silence and stigma that surround LGBTSTQ issues, uncountable) number of LGBTSTQ youth are marginally-housed, shifting from one unstable or temporary living situation to another without a support/safety net. Furthermore, many resort to sex work and other illegal activities as a means of survive.

While our constituency lives throughout the 5 boroughs of New York City and beyond, we focus on transgender & queer youth of color that hang out in the West Village – primarily on Christopher Street and the Pier. Historically, transgender, queer, and homeless youth of color have come to Christopher Street and the Pier to build community in one of the very few safe and culturally affirming environments in New York City. This was also a place where many low-income and homeless youth could access life-saving services such as HIV and other STI testing, bag lunches, safer sex materials, housing and employment referalls and counseling via service vans that operated late into the night free of charge. The early to mid 90’s kick started the period in which the West Village “community” was redefined by a major increase in gentrification and overdevelopment, the birth of “quality of life” policies that originated at our very own 6th precinct, and the ensuing police harassment and brutality against our constituecny that sought to serve and protect the interests of the wealthy resisdents, business owners, and developers. Since then we have seen the loss of the only late night drop in center for queer youth in the West Village, a decrease in resource allocation to social services specifically for transgender and queer youth in a period when statistics have pointed to the overrepresentation of LGBT youth in the total percentage of homeless youth in New York City, and the loss of public space for development projects such as the Hudson River Park Trust that have created new conditions and notions of how a park (once the West Side Highway piers) should serve the “community.”

The proactive measures we have taken at FIERCE to address the changing conditions in the West Village has included various marches & rallies that have brought to public attention the issues and conditions that many transgender & queer youth of color face in their lives - particularly the police harassment & brutality and lack of safe space to hang out and build community. Our unique strategies of leadership development and utilization of direct action tactics have historically forced our targets to take our issues into consideration in their decision-making and has helped us build strong relationships with West Village residents, business owners, and policy makers who are also concerned with the scapegoating and marginalization of transgender and queer youth of color.