My Story

My name is Karren Seely. I am a Family Medicine physician, however, the road getting here was not straight forward. You see, I am transgender. Born with a male designation, I grew up in a socially conservative religious household. When I came out my family disowned me.

Let me tell you, losing your biologic family in one blow is hard enough, having them betray you in such a drastic fashion, as mine did, when I needed their love and support the most, was beyond devestating. I suffered from severe suicidal depression and was in and out of the hospital during that time.

That's the hard part, but during that time I met my chosen family. My two moms who took me in and gave me their love and support I needed. With them cheering me on I finished college, and they helped inspire me to become a doctor. They did everything they could to make sure I succeeded. I now practice Family Medicine in New England.

This is what has inspired me to begin work on this project. To better understand this you need to understand some things about Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) youth. They, like I was, are extremely underserved, and at extreme risk. Approximately 40% of all homeless youth are LGBT. So for almost every 2 homeless kids you may see on the street, 1 of them is LGBT.

I was one of those kids, I was homeless for 4 months couch surfing with friends who were willing and able to take me in until I found a way to get back on my feet. I was lucky, I found people to love and support me for who I was.

This is exactly what I want to provide for these kids, some of the same opportunities I had at success and healing. But I don't want to provide it to just 1 or 2 kids, I want to do this for as many of our youth as possible.

That's where Sanctuary comes in. It is a halfway house for homeless LGBT youth. It will provide a safe space for these kids that they won't get anywhere else, it will provide a stable roof over their heads and a stable source of food. It will provide opportunities and safety that these kids never have living on the street.

Here's the best part, it'll make sure to provide education to give them an opportunity to succeed. The goal being that they get a chance to finish highschool. That they get to go to college or vocational training, where ever their interests take them. Part of this is achieved by providing that safe supportive environment, part by teaching basic skills as the land the house will be built on will be large enough to have a working farm.

These kids will have experienced a lot of trauma in their lives, working the land can help provide the grounding they need, and working with animals can be more than therapeutic. This means having horses and, hopefully, horse therapy to help heal the trauma and give these kids confidence.

Ultimately, I want this to be a place of sanctuary where these children's potential can be fully realized and brought back to society for the betterment of all of us rather than discarded and forgotten.