Elegance Bratton is sitting on a park bench in Washington Square Park. Just to the east is the New York University building where he studied film. A little to the west is the Christopher Street Pier where Bratton, at 16, found a home among other homeless, gay youths after his mother kicked him out of their New Jersey apartment for being gay. The first time he held hands with a boy was here.
“I’ve been homeless on these streets. I’ve been starving on these streets. I’ve not had train fare to get back home on these streets,” Bratton says. “To walk here now, there’s a lot of triumph. This little path from here to the pier was where I cut my teeth.”
