Queens Tribune

With sky blue walls and music playing in various rooms, the converted church in Astoria looks more like a summer camp dormitory than a homeless shelter for gay youths.

Aqua, a gay 23-year-old whose full name will be legally changed to Aqua Angel - Bel Starr from Daoud next month, sets a plate of chicken wings and secret sauce on a wooden table at the end of the room. Anansi Bumbray, who used to be a male named Andrew, strikes a pose in front of him and asks if she is "giving off girl or giving off guy today." As Aqua reassures her that she looks like a regular girl, Quayshawn Williams, a gay male, grabs a chicken wing off of Aqua's plate and runs across the room in black stiletto heels.

"We may not like each other sometimes," Aqua says in an exaggeratedly loud voice for Williams to hear, "but as far as I'm concerned, I'm here with family; brothers and sisters who I can be loud and gay around. They understand me."

A New Home
After making rounds at other homeless shelters, sleeping in subway trains and scraping by to make ends meet this year, Aqua was granted a bed at the shelter in Astoria last week. The shelter, which opened in mid-November at the Church of St Andrew's, is the newest addition to the Ali Forney Center's seven housing sites for gay youth in New York City.

This shelter is part of a program created through a partnership between the Ali Forney Center and the Episcopal Community Services of Long Island. The organizations invested more than $200,000 into renovating the space to offer 16 beds for some of the thousands of homeless gay youth like Aqua, Bumbray and Williams in New York City.

The director of the Ali Forney Center points out that the church is not just exhibiting tolerance of homosexuality, but displaying acceptance by reaching out to troubled gay teens.

"A bishop did the opening prayer the day we launched the shelter," said Carl Siciliano, the center's director. "And we have counselors there every night for guidance."

The site of the Astoria shelter was formerly an Episcopal church for 50 years before it was decommissioned. Siciliano said that members affiliated with the church reached out to the Ali Forney Center with the specific intention of helping gay youths.

"Many of these kids are fleeing violent or difficult situations," said Siciliano. "It often has to do with religion. And here is a church reaching out to them."

Choosing A Hard Life
Aqua grew up in a religious household and left his parent's place when he was 21 because life had become too difficult at home.

"When someone calls you gay and useless in the same sentence, what are you left to do?" he said, as Bumbray styles his dark curls. "The whole reason I'm in the city in the first place is because my parents kicked me out when they found out I was gay."

His parents, with whom he still keeps in touch along with his siblings and cousins, live in upstate New York. He has been in and out of shelters over the past few years, including Sylvia's and other housing sites administered through the Department of Homeless Services. When kicked out for bad behavior, he lived in subway trains, sometimes for weeks at a time.

"In order to get on the train, I would let men view me at night to get the $5 bucks," said Aqua. "That way I could get on twice."

In June, he was placed on the 150-person waitlist for a bed at one of Ali Forney's housing sites after doing rounds of interviews at the center's main office in downtown Manhattan. He moved into the Astoria location in late November. This center, which has fewer beds than other shelters and provides counseling services such as job coaching, has made him feel he can fulfill his ambitions. He has plans to start non-profit organizations to help homeless youth, including one called NYC Youf.

"There was a time [at other shelters] when I had plastic forks and knives and spoons hidden underneath my pillow," he said. "People were telling me they were going to come at me at 2 a.m. when everyone's asleep. You can't live like that."

No Place To Go
He and Bumbray met three months ago at Sylvia's, another shelter in New York City for gay youth. She had been in and out of shelters for the last three years, after living with her grandmother for two years in Staten Island when her mother asked her to leave home at 16. She is now 22.

"When your own family ostracizes you and makes you feel like a black sheep, it makes what you're going through that much harder," she said.

Since moving into this shelter with a community of like-minded people, Bumbray has been able to patch up her relationship with her mother and get her life back on track.

"My mother's neighborhood turned really bad and people were making fun of me [when I left]," said Bumbray. "It's easier on the both of us if I'm in a shelter."

She is now polishing her essays for an application to Hampshire College in upstate New York, where she hopes to study social sciences in fall 2010.

In the meantime, she plans to save up for a sex change operation and is taking hormones to enhance feminine features. The operation costs $20,000 and she expects to take out a medical loan for half that amount. She spends her days looking for a job for the $10,000 she needs.

Following The Rules
The center offers services in resume building and job searching at a separate location in Park Slope, which Bumbray finds useful. She visits the "camp," as this Brooklyn site is nicknamed, often during the week.

When at home after curfew, she and other residents are expected to do chores, demonstrate good behavior and progress so that they can extend their stays. Once given a bed, residents, all between the ages of 16 and 24, are eligible to stay for six months and are then re-evaluated.

The shelter closes its doors at 8 a.m. and reopens at 8 p.m. from Sunday through Thursday. It is an emergency shelter, which is not open during the day, except on weekends. On Friday and Saturday, the curfew is midnight, though they have to earn the right to stay out late. Timings are more flexible during holidays, which included Thanksgiving.

"This is the first year in six years that I didn't spend Thanksgiving with a family member," said Bumbray. "But I have family here too, now."

When Ali Forney opened its first shelter in 2002, most of the residents were from New York City. Today, there are up to 8,000 homeless gay youth in the City and Siciliano said that about a third of residents at the center's seven housing sites come from other states.

About 15 percent come from other countries, including the Caribbean and East Africa. Residents are predominantly black or Latino and are escaping difficult situations at home.

"As far as I'm concerned, even though our stories are different, it's all one outcome: we all ended up here," said Aqua. "We're a small community and it's our duty now to help each other as much as possible."