The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center has been awarded a $13.3 million federal grant to help homeless gay teens.
The center said the grant was the largest federal award ever to an organization serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The center plans to use the money from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to launch a five-year intervention program to aid gay kids in foster care, juvenile detention or in their family homes where they may be experiencing rejection.
Center staffers will intervene with counseling, mentoring, sensitivity training or other services to ensure the young people can remain in a healthy living environment, said Darrel Cummings, chief of staff for the Gay & Lesbian Center.