Before starting as a first-year at Brown in the fall, Maya Marcel-Keyes needs to take care of a few things.
She needs to find a home, because her parents kicked her out for being a lesbian. She needs to find a way to cover the cost of an Ivy League education, a cost suddenly thrust on the shoulders of a 19-year-old.
And, she said at a rally Monday, the world around her needs to find a way to address the issue of thousands of faceless queer teens living - and, as her close friend did last week, dying - on the streets. The gay-rights rally in Annapolis, Md., was her first public appearance.
"The main issue that I have been concerned about is the large population of homeless LGBT kids," Marcel-Keyes told The Herald. But she has a few of her own personal issues to take care of, she said, including "trying to find housing and things like that."
Things that include covering the cost of Brown tuition, which her parents refuse to help pay. Marcel-Keyes will visit the University this week to learn about the financial options available to students in her predicament, she said.
Marcel-Keyes already has some financial support on her side.
Last week, the Point Foundation, a national organization for students marginalized because of their sexual orientation and gender identity, announced that Marcel-Keyes will receive a scholarship to help cover the cost of tuition.
The public pays attention to her situation because of who her father is, Marcel-Keyes said, but she added that there are countless teenagers who have been abandoned by their parents and whose voices are never heard.
"It is really unfair that when something happens in my life, I get so much support, but for so many kids, they don't get any attention," Marcel-Keyes said.
Republican Alan Keyes, who lost the 2004 Illinois Senate election to Democrat Barack Obama and ran for the Republican presidential nomination twice, raised his daughter in a conservative household, sending her to Oakcrest School for Girls in McLean, Va., a small Catholic school that "was about as conservative as my parents," she said.
Alan Keyes' political views are centered on a pro-life, pro-family platform that strongly opposes gay marriage and emphasizes the need to treat what he calls "America's moral crisis."
"I grew up hearing how homosexuality was evil," Marcel-Keyes said. "When you are little, your parents really define your view of the world."
In her Monday speech, sponsored by Equality Maryland, a gay-rights organization, Marcel-Keyes said she has watched the issue of neglected queer teens go unnoticed for too long. "I won't be silent any longer," she told her audience.
"God works in really screwed-up ways sometimes," she began her speech. "There are times in life when he doesn't just nudge you gently in the direction he wants you to go, he sort of takes a two-by-four and whacks you over the head a few times. Last month felt a lot like that for me."
Last month, Marcel-Keyes was told she should pack her bags and leave her father's apartment. Last week brought the death of a close friend who was living on the streets for two years after being turned away by his parents for being gay.
But to a certain degree, Marcel-Keyes understands her parents' decision: "Funding my education would be funding me towards something they are against."
Marcel-Keyes is looking for financial support in other places. She hopes her trip to Brown this week will help her figure out what she is going to do about paying her way through college.
Each year, the University hears from a certain number of students who don't have the financial support of their parents, said Michael Bartini, director of financial aid. "We look at them on a case-by-case basis," he said, unable to comment specifically on Marcel-Keyes' situation.
Point Foundation Executive Director Vance Lancaster said he hopes Marcel-Keyes' situation will bring more attention to the problem of marginalized gay and lesbian youth - "a real issue out there that is being glossed over."
Many Point Scholars have found themselves in predicaments similar to Marcel-Keyes', Lancaster said. "A lot of the people we support were supported or loved by their families one day and disowned the next," he added.
Marcel-Keyes will be Brown's second Point Scholar.
Daniel Bassichis '06.5 is the first of Brown's Point Scholars. "Her experience is very different from mine, which shows the range of the Point Foundation," said Bassichis, whose family is supportive of him. But like Marcel-Keyes, Bassichis is also committed to social justice and addressing queer-related issues.
There is a strong need for more organizations like the Point Foundation, Marcel-Keyes said. Her time at Brown will be a step towards her goal of one day opening her own LGBT youth center, she said.
She hopes to study political science and to continue getting her message out to others, she said.
Marcel-Keyes shares her personal experiences on a blog she has been keeping for the past five years. The blog, which has gained tremendous recognition in the past few weeks, has generated a lot of "random angry hate mail" and a huge amount of supportive feedback, she said.
The quote in big purple letters at the top of her blog, she is embarrassed to admit, is from a Good Charlotte song: "You say I'm a dreamer, I say you're a nonbeliever." The quote has been there for years, she said, but recently it has taken on new meaning.
For Marcel-Keyes, the quote means the issue of homeless queer youth is one that can be helped. "It's all very well and good to wish these problems are solved," she said. " 'There are too many homeless kids out there,' they say. But everyone can do a little something to help."
