The homeless are shuffled out of sight. The mentally ill are neglected. Elderly citizens are discounted and the incarcerated are abused. I volunteer regularly at a San Francisco crisis hotline, answering phone calls from people who suffer because of injustice and who are, sometimes literally, at the end of their rope. When normal coping mechanisms don't work, people can either give up or try something new.
Crisis is a time of danger and opportunity.
As a result, I see the hotline as both a safety net and a tool for change. I believe that just as the hotline serves to protect and empower callers indiscriminately, so should the law function, supporting and representing all people equally. When I was twenty years old, my best friend and boarding school roommate committed suicide. She was attending a small, conservative college and struggling with revelations of sexual identity. Physically distant from the support of family and friends, she became terribly depressed.