Singer Miley Cyrus is launching the
Happy Hippie Foundation to help homeless and LGBT youth.
“The position I'm in, I feel like
I've got a lot of power,” she told the AP “But so many kids
don't feel that way. They're under their parents' rule.”
Cyrus, 22, said she was moved to act by
the suicide of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn. The Ohio teen said in
her suicide note that her parents
refused to accept and attempted to alter her gender identity.
Cyrus said that 40 percent of the more
than 1.6 million young people who are homeless in the United States
identify as LGBT.
She also called Bruce Jenner “my
hero” for coming out transgender.
The foundation aims to help raise funds
and awareness for My Friend's Place, a homeless youth shelter in
Hollywood.
(On the Net: Happy
Hippie Foundation)