We Are the Youth Occupies Wall Street
Re-energized after a short hiatus, We Are the Youth is back on the proverbial “profile-wagon.” New profiles coming soon, stay tuned!
Today is National Coming Out Day
In honor of this holiday, some thoughts on coming out from We Are the Youth participants:
“I was kind of scared to tell my dad. But he was like, “Whatever tricks your trigger. Just don’t be tricking it too early.” Then we’d be checking out girls at Wal-Mart.”—Audri, 15, Laurel, MS
“I just officially came out to my sister yesterday. On Twitter. My sister told my mom “Marina’s never actually come out to me. I know, or I think I know.” But it seemed to my mom like she wanted me to tell her. So last night I sent her a Twitter direct message being like, “Hey, mom said you wanted me to tell you this but you probably already know, so yeah…” She wrote “Haha. Thanks, I guess.”–Marina, 21, Atlanta, GA
“For a few weeks I wanted to go to the LGBT club at school. But I can’t. I can’t bring myself to do it. I don’t want to be out. I feel like if I come out, there will be stigma attached to me. Like, ‘Oh, there’s Chase. The guy that used to be a girl.’”—Chase, 19, Brooklyn, NY
“I definitely want to come out to my parents, but I want to wait until I get a better foothold and can support myself. I’ve mentally dealt with it and made peace with how it is with my parents. But sometimes it’s hard. My home life feels like it’s a lie.”—Dohyun, 19, Atlanta, GA
“In a way, I was pissed off to even have to come out. I think it’s stupid. Heterosexual people don’t have to come out as straight.”–Ana, 18, Blauvelt, NY
To share your thoughts on coming out, email hello@wearetheyouth.org. We’ll post responses on this here blog.
GET IN TOUCH!
We constantly receive emails from youth around the country looking to get involved in the project. Although we’d love to profile every one of you, (and we really do hope to visit your town in the near future!), lack of funding sometimes prohibits us from immediately meeting you face-to-face. In the meantime, here’s a few ways you can get involved:
- Spreading the word about We Are the Youth = always awesome. Friend us on Facebook, follow us on Tumblr, join our mailing list, you get the idea.
- Since the launch of our new site, we’re looking for more youth-write ups. This means if you go to a LGBT-youth related event, you can submit a short write up about it and we’ll post it on this blog. Here’s a good example.
- We’ll be looking for guest bloggers in the near future. This is a new idea for us so we’re still working out the kinks, but send us an email if you have a cool idea for a guest blog post, we’re open to all sorts of ideas.
- If you’re involved with an LGBT-youth related organization we’d love to publicize the group on our Resource Page. Let us know.
We love to hear from youth around the country, so don’t be shy, shoot us an email!
NEW WEBSITE (FINALLY) LAUNCHES!
The big day has arrived. After months of hard work (and loads of help from James Dodd, web-coder extraordinaire), We Are the Youth has launched its newly redesigned website!
New features include a Resource page showing a map of area-specific groups and organizations for LGBT youth. Our resource list is constantly expanding, so if you’d like us to include your organization, contact us and we’ll put it on the map. We are also expanding this blog to include more youth write-ups, posts by guest bloggers, and more LGBT youth-related news items, so email hello@wearetheyouth.org if you’d like to share your story, contribute a write-up, or just say hello.
In other news, we’ve recently opened a We Are the Youth Etsy shop, where you (generous supporter!), can buy a custom print. In addition, although we’ll still be posting profiles to the blog portion of the website, you can now view all We Are the Youth profiles in our archive.
Other business is continuing as usual — stay tuned for more profiles and exciting news!
As always, thanks for all the support,
Laurel & Diana
Gender Reel Festival!
If you’re in Philly the weekend of Sept 9th-11th, come check out Gender Reel, an annual festival dedicated to enhancing the visibility of gender non-conforming, gender variant/queer and transgender identities. We Are the Youth will be showing 4 portraits and accompanying interviews Friday night and all day Saturday!
A Look Back
In the spirit of nostalgia and our 1 year anniversary, here are some highlights of the past year. Thanks again for all the support and we hope the coming year is just as awesome as the last!
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| Where it all started! Gay Prom, Yonkers, New York |
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| A Growth Grant from DoSomething.org! |
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| A successful Kickstarter campaign! |
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| A trip to the South, met with Braxton in Auburn, Alabama |
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| A weekend trip, met with Hot Sause in Stony Point, New York |
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| A recent trip to Coney Island, New York, with Isaac! |
One Year Old!
We Are the Youth has had an incredible first year! Below is a press release that went out this morning to mark our first anniversary. In order to continue to bring you the stories of youth from across the country, we are working to raise additional funds. We’re now fiscally sponsored by Brooklyn Arts Council, which means you can make a tax deductible donation and we can accept matching donations from companies. To contribute please visit the BAC donation page and designate We Are the Youth as the specific program or fund (further instructions here). Your support means a lot. And please continue to tell friends, family and contacts all about We Are the Youth!
Thanks for a great first year!
Diana and Laurel
LGBT Photojournalism Project Celebrates First Year
We Are the Youth, a photojournalism project chronicling the individual stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in the United States, is celebrating its first anniversary this week, coinciding with Gay Pride Month.
Through photographic portraits and “as told to” interviews in the participants’ own voices, We Are the Youth captures the incredible diversity and uniqueness among the LGBT youth population. We Are the Youth was founded on June 23, 2010 by photographer Laurel Golio and journalist Diana Scholl, childhood friends and queer women who live in Brooklyn. The first series of portraits and interviews was done at Gay Prom in Westchester County. Since then, We Are the Youth has grown to profile dozens of youth in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
The launch of We Are the Youth predated the rising attention to the plight of suicides among LGBT teens. We Are the Youth has used its platform to share stories of depression and bullying, but also of happiness and hope. “We don’t go into these interviews with an agenda to comment on the issue of the day,” Scholl said. “The youth tell us what’s going on in their lives, and these stories paint their own pictures.”
These profiles have a positive impact on the youth featured and the thousands more who have viewed the website. “We Are the Youth brings legitimacy to the struggles of youth like me. They help young people everywhere realize that they are not alone, and that they are loved. As a teenager I scoured the Internet for projects like We Are the Youth; my pain coming out would have been lessened by a powerful and passionate organization such as this,” said Noah Maier, a student at Mercer University in Georgia who was featured on We Are the Youth.
In September, We Are the Youth will be featured at its first festival, Gender Reel, a Philadelphia event dedicated to enhancing the visibility of gender non-conforming, gender variant/queer and transgender identities.
We Are the Youth is the recipient of a Do Something grant, and has been featured on numerous outlets including Jezebel, Change.org, and the It Gets Better Project. We Are the Youth is sponsored by the Brooklyn Arts Council.
For more information contact us at hello@wearetheyouth.org.
Update From Our (Virtual) Office
It’s been a while since we’ve said hello and many big things have happened since then! First of all, we’re happy to announce that Brooklyn Arts Council has signed on as our Fiscal Sponsor! Although it’s only been a few weeks, we’ve been impressed at BAC’s friendly and professional rapport and are very excited to work with them in 2011. Now that we have a fiscal sponsor, we’ll be able to apply for a larger array of grants and any contribution that you make to We Are the Youth will be tax deductible! For more information, please email hello@wearetheyouth.org.
In addition, Quincy was our last profile from the Southern Series so starting next week, we’ll be posting profiles of interesting youth in the tri-state area (including some youth from the Common Threads Retreat that we attended in January)! In the meantime, stay tuned for a “from the field” write-up and if you need something to do, join our mailing list (we promise not to bombard you with a million newsletters, just a friendly update here and there).
Thanks again for all the support!
Laurel & Diana
What did YOU do for Halloween?
After our last post, we drove to photograph and interview Audri, a 15 year old in Laurel, MS. Audri decided to be home schooled after facing constant bullying in the public school system; she is now less than a year away from attending college. We really enjoyed meeting Audri as well as her seven newborn puppies — interview and photo to come!
Fun fact: Laurel, MS is a relatively small town in southeast Mississippi, former home of Lance Bass and Parker Posey (one of whom is gay!).
Post puppy time, we got back in the car and headed to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for our first night off, spent at the lovely La Quinta Inn. The following morning, we met with Anna, a freshman at the University of Alabama, to profile her at her sister’s house in town. We also met with the U of A school paper, article coming soon!
We then drove to Montevallo (the South’s most liberal town) to meet with Trevor, president of the University of Montevallo’s Gay-Straight Alliance, a beautiful drag queen and all around nice guy. Trevor informed us that Montevallo is a (super) liberal oasis in a (super) conservative state. We also interviewed Quincy, a member of Lamba Chi, a progressive fraternity on campus that openly welcomes gay students. Quincy and his frat-brother (another gay!) later took us to the town’s Mexican restaurant, El Agave. After enchiladas and guacamole, we proceeded to a Lamba Chi Halloween Party (yes, we’re 25, and yes, we went to a frat party), where everyone was very welcoming.
In the morning, we drove to Birmingham and went to the Civil Rights Institute, a moving museum that documents the civil rights struggle of Black Americans in Birmingham and throughout the South. Unfortunately, we had to cut our visit short to head back to the Atlanta airport.
All in all, it’s been a most amazing trip, complete with overload on all things fried, lack of sleep and too much time in the car. In all seriousness, though, what we’ll take away from this trip are the moving stories that we’ve heard and the brave people who have told them. We look forward to sharing them in the upcoming weeks.
Keep Alabama Beautiful
Hi y’all! We’re currently in Laurel, Mississippi (very exciting for one of us) at the lovely Rodeway Inn. Since we don’t have a minute to waste on this trip (putting our donor money to good use!) let’s recap the past 3 days:
Day 2 at Mercer was jam-packed with six interviews and portrait sessions. Although the community was small, the LGBT population was incredibly diverse and excited to share their stories. That evening we attended the Common Ground meeting, which was interesting and informative!
Post-meeting, Noah took us to the (best) wing place near campus where we ordered fried okra, pickle chips, delicious wings and $2 beer! And here’s a fun fact that Noah shared: Macon, Georgia is home to more churches per capita than ANYWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES.
The next morning we woke up at 6 am (ugh), stumbled to our sweet ride (see above!) and drove two hours to Statesboro, Georgia. There we met with Derrick Martin, a super-impressive freshman at Georgia Southern. You may have heard of Derrick last spring when he made national news after being kicked out of his home for wanting to take his boyfriend to prom. He later founded Project Life Vest, an amazing organization that helps LGBT youth in crisis.
For lunch: Shrimp and grits, fried shrimp and sweet tea, of course. All for a total of $12! What a Southern steal (can you tell we’re from NYC?!). Laurel, suffering from a migraine, finally relinquished control of the car to Diana who did a superb driving job from Statesboro to Auburn, Alabama, a long, long drive.
That evening we attended the Auburn University Gay-Straight Alliance meeting. Being in the heart of the Bible Belt (and an SEC school where football is the second religion), we were happily shocked at the huge turnout – about 60 people. We then had a lovely dinner with the group and the next day we met with four students and a pet lizard. Interviews and portraits to come!
Last night we were back on the open road to Mississippi, stopping in Selma, Alabama for dinner and historical significance! Downtown Selma looks right out of the 1960s (really amazing), reminding us that the road to equality is not an easy one.
After Laurel pulled over at every historical marker, we made our way out of town and onto Mississippi! Thanks to Kandace for housing us in Auburn, Braxton for coordinating, the AGSA for being awesome and all the wonderful people we met at Auburn.
War Eagle!
LGBT Panel, Mercer University, Macon Georgia
Gay Questions, Straight Answers,” an LGBT Panel at Mercer University
