#jenbraly

Throughout this video, a woman named Jennifer Braly is being interviewed in Toledo, Ohio in the year of 2015. Jennifer Braly has been a transwoman since 2011, and she was just evicted from her apartment after falling behind on the rent. Jen went to Sparrow's Nest homeless shelter for help late one Tuesday night, only to be shut down by them. When Jennifer began talking to the employees, one of them asked her out of no where if she was transgender. Jennifer answered "yes" proudly only to be told that she would have to stay in the men's section of the homeless shelter. Jen told them no that she isn't going to do that. She said she is a woman, and she fears for her safety if she were to be roomed with the men. Unfortunately, that's how these women thought about her being housed with the other women staying in the shelter. They did allow her to stay the night, but the catch was that she would have to stay in the lobby away from the other girls. 

 Dan Rogers, CEO of Cherry Street Mission Ministries, was also interviewed about the issue. Dan says that their mission is to help all in need. That it doesn't matter their gender identity or sexual orientation. He also stated that this has come up before, but never like this. What does he mean by that? Not so sure. I think he meant it in a way that it had never seen the light like Jennifer's story. He has also admitted that issues like this have happened in the past, but he can see that society is slowly but surely accepting the transgender population by seeing them live more openly. Dan does plan to speak with Jennifer to come up with some type solution to her problem. He also said that he hopes that this opens doors to helping the unhoused within the LGBT community. 

 There has been many cases where transgender people are turned down when they need help the most all because of their gender identity. As you can see, Jennifer Braly is just a woman. A woman who needs help and she is being turned down because she doesn't fit Sparrow's Nest definition of a "woman". "I am a normal person, with hard times and I am looking for the same safe shelter and help anybody else is", Jennifer Braly said this at the end of her interview. You can tell by her choice of words how hurt she was by the fact that she can't receive the same help and benefits that a cis gender would have gotten in a heart beat.