In the furore over civil unions which erupted last year, many conservatives and religious groups expressed oblique concern for "the children" of same-sex relationships, to which GayNZ.com replied "what about the gay and lesbian children"? While people like businessmen John Sax and Ralph Norris, author Alan Duff and Auckland University pro-Vice Chancellor Mick Brown were attempting to covertly convince civic leaders that children were under real threat from gay and lesbian parents, the opposite was actually true – gay and lesbian kids were more likely to be under threat from their heterosexual parents, some of whom still react very negatively to the news that their offspring aren't straight. These kids end up out on the street, and if you thought this was a relic of our intolerant past, think again. Studies in the United States have shown time and again that gay and lesbian youth are vastly over-represented in statistics of homeless youth, with numbers estimated at anywhere between 25 and 40 per cent. In 2001, Wellington's Evening Post reported that gay and transsexual teenagers thrown out of their homes because of their sexuality were dropping out of school and taking up sex work to survive, because social welfare was failing to provide for them. In our largest city, Auckland, the problem of homeless GLBT youth is also very real. Auckland's Gay Chris Banks - 3rd February 2005