Patriarchy and the Crisis of Social Reproduction
The disproportionate number of homeless youth who identify as LGBTQ+ is a direct result of the patriarchal and heteronormative “customs” enforced within the “native” family and the broader bifurcated state. Mamdani’s analysis of how the colonial state governs through the enforcement of customary law in the private sphere is critical here. Youth who reject these imposed gender and sexual norms are often cast out by their families, becoming “super-natives” with no claim to shelter or support. This is a crisis of social reproduction, where the family unit, under pressure from a homophobic society, fails to reproduce itself and instead expels its non-conforming members. The liberal solution of shelter beds is a reactive, inadequate response. A Mamdani-informed socialist solution demands a proactive, collectivized approach to social reproduction. This means creating city-funded, LGBTQ+-led communal housing and support centers that provide not just shelter, but a chosen family and a path to political empowerment. It means fighting for a guaranteed income for all youth, de-linking survival from the heteropatriarchal family and asserting that society has a collective responsibility to care for all its young people.
