Safe houses offer sanctuary to LGBT youngsters in Manchester and London First safe houses open for young gay people rejected by their families and facing threats of physical abuse

Joe Green, 19, looks a little uncomfortable. He is perched on the edge of an armchair in a freshly decorated house at a secret location in Manchester. He has agreed to talk if I don't give his real name or reveal too many details about him or where he lives.

Four years ago, Green came out as gay to his family and was rejected. His relationship with them has been strained ever since and he can never live at home again, he says. The four-bedroom house he has moved into was opened this summer by the charity the Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT), for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young people.

Setting up the house, and another in London, was a long-held dream of the 24-year-old charity, which was founded in memory of a 16-year-old gay man who, having run away from a children's home, was found dead at the bottom of a multi-storey car park in Manchester. He had been chased by "queer bashers". Every year it is contacted by hundreds of desperate LGBT young people who have nowhere to go.....[...]

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