Plea for Rockingham's homeless gays

A former homeless woman who identifies as a butch lesbian is calling for action to provide crisis accommodation for gay and transgender people after she was refused entry to an East Perth woman's shelter for being too masculine.

For the past 12 months Lou Kell, who came out three years ago, has been homeless five times, about eight weeks in total, living on the streets or in charity-paid backpackers' accommodation.

She claimed she was refused acceptance to a woman's shelter because she would be "intimidating" to other woman taking refuge at the facility and even though there were beds at a men's shelter she was not welcome because she was not a man.

Ms Kell, who has now found a home in Safety Bay, said she was regularly insulted about her sexuality and accused of being a man because she chose to dress in men's clothes.

"People are looking at my hair and not me, I've got "chesticles" not testicles," she said.

"I'm discriminated against in shopping centres when I use the women's toilet - one day there was a woman who argued so much I showed her my crop top to prove I was a woman."

Since meeting her partner Rowena Nissen, the pair have been homeless together three times in the past year, taking refuge in Ms Kell's wagon.

In February, she awoke one night and could not feel her right leg, the result of a back injury and now requires a wheelchair for mobility.

She said she could handle living on the streets, even though it was a struggle to climb in the back of her vehicle, but did not buy the excuse that she could not be accepted for the way she looked.

"It's disgraceful and people need to come to the 21st century and realise we are allowed to be who we want to be and dress," Ms Kell said.

"There needs to be something done about it because there are a lot of us butch lesbians out there but there is no accommodation for the homeless gay community.

"I've attempted suicide a few times from lack of help."