The Night Ministry, a nonprofit group that helps the homeless and those in poverty, will be opening the 15-bed shelter at Lakeview Lutheran Church, located at 835 W. Addison St.

Megan Groves, The Night Ministry’s communications coordinator, said the shelter will be open from January through April and is being funded by a grant from the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services.

Groves said the overnight shelter will serve dinner when it opens at 9 p.m. She said breakfast will be served in the morning and bag lunches will be provided. Youth must leave in the morning, but Groves said there’s no limit on the number of nights a youth can stay.

The Night Ministry lists the number of homeless youths in the city of Chicago at 10,000, but measuring the exact number is difficult, said Sarah Sumadi, director of communications at the Center on Halsted. She said if someone is sleeping under the CTA, that’s homeless, but if they have friends letting them crash on their couch, it’s a different situation.

“We usually call them at-risk of becoming homeless. They may not consider themselves homeless. There’s definitely a stigma around that,” said Sumadi.

Jennifer Ritter, executive director of nonprofit advocacy group Lakeview Action Coalition (LAC), said the shelter is for 18- to 24-year-olds. She said it’s the first time the city is opening a youth shelter specifically for that age group.

“It’s very exciting,” said Ritter.

Beth Cunningham, a staff attorney at Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, said the Coalition, The Night Ministry and LAC introduced homeless youth to Mayor Daley last January at an art show and asked him for help. The mayor then had other city officials develop a plan to create additional shelter beds.

Current housing options for homeless youth in Lakeview are limited and dangerous. Ritter said many of them “couch-surf” at their friends’ houses. Ritter said kids will also go to the police station, where a van will pick them up and take them to Pacific Garden Mission, a West Side homeless shelter located at 1458 S. Canal St.

“It is a brutal place,” said Ritter.

Ritter said robberies occur at Pacific Garden Mission and it’s hard for youths to keep their bodies safe. She said kids get sent there just because there’s space.

Sumadi said living situations intensify over the winter.

“My inkling, and I don’t know there are statistics to support this, is that sex work goes up because the situation is really dire. Anything they can do to get a roof over their heads, they’ll do,” said Sumadi.

Sumadi said the Center, located at 3656 N. Halsted St., doesn’t have beds but does have a breakfast club Monday-Thursday, from 8 to 11 a.m. Sumadi said hot meals are provided and a case manager helps the kids get medical services.

Homeless youth in Lakeview also go to the Dunkin’ Donuts at 3200 N. Clark St. to escape the cold. Store manager Carla Vasconez said the owner doesn’t want homeless youth in the store, but she lets them stay 15 minutes when it gets cold outside. Vasconez said she lets them stay longer if they buy something and don’t disturb other customers. She said some youths start fights in the Dunkin ‘N Donuts, and chairs have been thrown.

“I don’t know what they’re on,” said Vasconez.

Vasconez said police have been called a few times, and they want her to fill out restraining orders against the chair throwers.

“I don’t have time to do that,” she said.

The center, located at 3656 N. Halsted St., will host four speed dating soirees throughout April and June 2010. Two of the four get-togethers will focus on lesbians while the other two are geared toward men.

The programs cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door. The second women’s event is scheduled to take place June 17 — the first was held April 8 — and men will have an opportunity to speed date on April 29 and June 10. All four will begin at 6:45 p.m. and end at 8:45 p.m. Proceeds will go toward general funding and programming for the Center on Halsted.

“We like doing the speed dating events because a lot of people [who come] don’t want to try to meet people through the bar or club scene,” said Christine Forster, intern for transgender and women’s programming at the Center on Halsted and a senior at Loyola University. “It’s a nice alternative for people who are a little more shy, who aren’t into heavy drinking and who aren’t into that sort of scene.”

Many people think it’s easier for heterosexual men and women to find dates than it is for homosexual men and women. Even though society has come a long way since the days of Anita Bryant and the unforgettable Christian-based slogan, “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” many cultures still don’t accept same-sex relationships.

“I definitely think dating is 10 times easier for heterosexual men and women,” said Donté Rogers, 21, a resident of the Greektown neighborhood. “I feel like our history and our traditions have been shaped around a heterosexual view. There’s more straight bars than there are gay bars, there’s more areas where you’re going to have heterosexuals living in because there aren’t necessarily that many gay communities. It’s based around the way our society’s governed.”

Since blind dates can sometimes be a potential formula for disaster and online dating services attempt to create chemistry based on profile pictures, regular, old-fashioned dating seems like a thing of the past.

“I absolutely think homosexual men resort to online dating much more than heterosexual men,” said Alex Johnson, 22, of Old Town. “It’s harder to ascertain a man’s sexual preference, and it’s more dangerous to go up to a man in public.”

Santay Powell, 24, of downtown Chicago, on the other hand, feels that “heterosexual women prefer online dating more over lesbian women because most women don’t like to make the first move.

“If no one is making moves on them, going online gives them more opportunities,” Powell said.

Supporters say that speed dating serves as a fun and social alternative that takes men and women out of uncomfortable situations and encourages them to meet a large number of people. Instead of going on one long date with one person, participants go on a number of quick mini-dates.

“It offers a low pressure, low awkwardness moment to just meet people,” Forster said. “It’s quick, it’s fun, and there aren’t many queer-identified spaces that aren’t bars or clubs where people feel very comfortable going to.”

Forster also said that it’s quieter at the Center on Halsted than it is in bars, allowing speed daters the chance to really talk to one another.

The Center on Halsted has not yet conducted a bisexual speed dating event, but Forster said it is something she might consider. “There’s no point in having gay men and lesbians in the same room together because then it would be like straight speed dating,” she said. “Men expect to meet men and women expect to meet women.”

“I don’t think I would go to a bisexual speed dating get-together,” Johnson said. “It might be fun if I was looking for maybe some new female friends, but if I’m serious about it and I actually do go looking for a date, I’m going to want to be surrounded by gorgeous men, not women.”

The meaning of the word “date” has changed drastically in recent years; people nowadays can be described as a “friend with benefits” or even a “cuddle buddy.” Countless online dating Web sites are misconstrued and used for hook-ups and random sex, and some are precautious or suspicious that a speed dating rendezvous would offer the same.

“No matter what, your hormones are there,” Rogers said. “Some people are better at hiding them, but others are like,‘I need it,’ and if there is a quick way to meet somebody else who feels the same way, then why not? It’s really a personal thing and it can go either way.”

According to Forster, past events have had very high satisfaction rates for both the men and women, and there hasn’t been a situation where things have gotten too risqué.

“I’ve never actually been to one, because I’ve already got someone,” Powell said. “It would be interesting to mingle, get to know new people and see what happens. I might have to go see what they’re all about.”

The proposed legislation would allow gay couples to wed in Illinois. As the new bill waits in the legislature until next year’s session, opinions vary widely on the issue in the Chicago area.

“I don’t believe in it,” said Shirley Anderson, 51, of Woodlawn. “I don’t believe in it from a religious standpoint, but I don’t judge – that’s God’s job.”

“I think it’d be a good thing,” said Paula Botha, 25, of La Grange. “I don’t see why it should be any different for same-sex or opposite sex [couples].”

State Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) introduced the Equal Marriage Act in the Senate on Oct. 1. Steans said the bill would be heard by Senate committees as soon as February or March.

“I’ve had a strong response and support in the Chicago area,” said Steans. “I will continue to work with like-minded advocates to advance the bill and am looking for as much help as possible in every area of the state.”

The bill is the first of its kind in the Illinois Senate, but succeeds a civil unions bill introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives in February by Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago). Harris also introduced an equal marriage bill, but it failed to move beyond the committee.

Supporters of the new bill hope to reignite the debate around same-sex marriage in Illinois now that the civil unions bill has stalled, after squeaking through the House Youth and Family Committee on a 4-3 vote in May.

While public opinion varies, activists are charged up on both sides of the issue.

“We’re trying to educate people about the harm that this bill will do to religious freedoms and First Amendment rights,” said David Smith, executive director of the Illinois Family Institute, a religious organization that opposes same-sex marriage.

“There is a reason why the state recognizes natural marriage. It encourages it because it benefits the state,” Smith said. “It provides the ideal environment to raise children. What does gay marriage do? Nothing. It doesn’t benefit the state one iota.”

As religious institutions lobby against these bills, activists in the gay community are fighting for more than just marriage.

“I am for the equal marriage bill, but people need to remember that even with marriage equality in the state of Illinois – if it were to pass – it still means that most benefits of marriage are not accruable to gays and lesbians,” said Sherry Wolf, independent journalist, activist and author of “Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation.”

“Most rights come from the federal government, not the states. So it is not enough,” she said.

Wolf was a committee member for the National Equality March in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 11. She said the march was a great start for activism.

“It was just the beginning. And what we need is ongoing speak-outs, rallies, speeches, film showings, sit-ins – all sorts of activism and public expression of dissent,” Wolf said.

“I have a positive outlook no matter what,” said Sidney Stokes, student and president of Common Ground, the LGBT group at Columbia College Chicago.

“If it doesn’t happen right now I know that Illinois, like the country, will one day have it,” he said. “I think the most important thing is to send a message to the legislature that Illinois wants this.”

Smith said the bill would not become law.

“It’s going nowhere fast,” he said. “It does not have the traction, despite the fact that the Democrats have a super-majority in the House and a majority in the Senate.”

For the last six years, the Illinois Family Institute has unsuccessfully lobbied to amend the state constitution to permanently ban same-sex marriage.

“Our amendment is not going anywhere,” Smith said, acknowledging House
Speaker Michael Madigan’s (D-Chicago) refusal to move the legislation to the committee. “It’s status-quo as of now,” he said.

Same-sex marriage rights were repealed in the state of Maine this month by a ballot measure called Proposition 1. Gay couples may marry in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire and Vermont.

A grassroots organizing campaign led by LGBT youth has won agreement from CPS chief Ron Huberman on a new advisory council to promote the school district’s policies against discrimination and harassment.

The agreement comes weeks after another youth-led campaign won an expanded anti-discrimination policy from the Board of Education.

Meeting with members of the citywide coalition Gender Just and other groups on August 18, Huberman offered to fund an “intervention team” or advisory council of students and community members that would develop a student justice handbook and guide development of a training curriculum for CPS staff.

The team will also be tasked with developing a grievance process for students with discrimination and harassment issues that their own schools aren’t addressing adequately, said Sam Finkelstein of Gender Just.

CPS’s anti-discrimination policy was expanded to add gender identity and expression to the list of protect categories at the school board’s July 22 meeting. That decision followed a drive by young people working with the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, during which nearly a thousand signatures were collected on petitions.

The August meeting followed a community forum with Huberman in June where Gender Just proposed eight measures as part of their “safe and affirming education” campaign. These included a district accountability organizer to assist gay-straight alliances in every school; comprehensive sex education, covering condom use and diverse sexual orientations; accountability for security guards; attention to the potential impacts of school closings on vulnerable students; and a directive to principals emphasizing the district’s anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies.

Gender Just wanted mandatory training for all staff; Huberman agreed to develop a curriculum for new staff orientation that would also be available online, Finkelstein said. A letter to principals emphasizing district policies will go out with the new curriculum, he said.

Good policies, not always followed

CPS has good policies but they aren’t implemented everywhere, Finkelstein said. “There are a lot of disparities and they tend to match up with income levels and race,” he said.

Gay-straight alliances — GSAs — are generally found on the north side, with very few on the south or west sides, he said. Often schools won’t allow students to form GSAs, even though CPS policy requires them to do so if they allow any student clubs, Finkelstein said.

“Teachers weren’t really supportive,” said Akhia Daniels, a recent graduate of South Shore High School for Leadership. “They would see stuff going on and not address it.”

“School is supposed to be a place for education, a place to be safe, not a place to be judged on whether you like boys or girls,” she said. “They want you to do all these things and at the same time they’re not offering you a safe environment.”

Another campaign member is Chicago Youth Initiating Change, a citywide social justice group. CYIC emphasizes problems with Renaissance 2010, including problems caused for vulnerable students by closings and relocations.

Military academies, security guards

Renaissance 2010 schools present other problems, Finkelstein said: with “more flexibility and less accountability,” charter and contract schools associated with Renaissance 2010 are more likely to disregard or feel unbound by CPS policy. Discrimination, harassment and violence are particularly issues in the military academies which are proliferating, he said.

Blocks Together, a community organization which organizes youth in West Humboldt Park, joined the campaign because BT’s longtime effort to improve training for security guards meshed with its goals, said Cecile Carroll. At last month’s meeting, Huberman said CPS is finally overhauling training to raise standards and increase professionalism among guards.

Blocks Together’s youth council wants to be at the table — in part to ensure that principles of restorative justice are part of the training — Carroll said. “It’s a good opportunity to help influence the culture of security guards all across the system, rather than school by school, the way we have been working,” she said.

While school districts in cities across the country are beginning to address the concerns of LGBT youth, Chicago’s efforts are noteworthy because of the direct involvement of youth in designing responses, Finkelstein said. “Chicago has a robust youth organizing movement right now,” he said.