We Are the Youth participant Jesse reports back on Trans Health Conference
Jesse, (one of the first-ever We Are the Youth participants!), attended the Trans Health Conference earlier this month. He blogs here about his experience.
Jesse and friends having fun at the Trans Health Conference in Philadelphia
From May 30th until June 2nd I was in Philadelphia for the Trans* Health Conference. It’s the largest transgender* conference in the entire world with three days of lectures, sessions and booths. The youth had a very large number at the conference, with lots of groups run by young people.
Ryan Cassata, a We Are the Youth participant, was there not only as a representative of his music and his efforts for the community, but also as a keynote speaker. He spoke about sexism and shaming in the trans* community and why he thinks its important for everyone to respect each others identities because there is no one way to be trans*.
There was also a teen space with many fun activities and games for the younger set. My good friend Loan Tran gave a excellent speech inspired by our GLSEN training about safe schools and what we can do to address our own issues in our schools. In the same space Drexel (my future home), a college that is located in Philadelphia had their LGBT-identified club, FUSE, do a workshop about action on campus and how to get activism rolling. (more…)
Tour of Historic Christopher Street
Today the West Village Coalition called on New York City to make Christopher Street a gay rights landmark. We Are the Youth intern Sarah Nakano’s drawing below makes it pretty clear why Christopher Street is deserving of landmark status.
Something New Presents: Dress Up//Get Down
Something New Presents: Dress up//Get Down, Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Drom, Ave A between 5th and 6th, Manhattan
Hosted by The Lowbrow Society of the Arts + Something New
by Sarah Nakano
Before entering the doors of Something New’s “Dress up //Get down,” I had little to no idea what to expect. I had been told that it was “more than an art show, more than a party,” and “not a fashion show, a show about fashion.” What does that even mean? I don’t know. I guess in my head I pictured some kind of art-music-fashion-queer culture-dance-glitter fusion; people would be running around and things would be flying around in the air above me and there would be models drinking champagne + painting at the same time, etc. etc. (more…)
Our Intern, Sarah, Reports on the Original Plumbing Issue 9 Release Party
Original Plumbing Issue 9 Release Party, Saturday March 24th, 2012
Public Assembly, Brooklyn, New York
Photos and write-up by Sarah Nakano
Unfortunately, there is only a handful of magazines and periodicals out there that focus on transgender culture and/or are written by trans men and women. But GOOD NEWS: photographer Amos Mac and rapper Rocco Kayiatos (Rocco Katastrophe) come bearing “Original Plumbing,” their glossy, informative, and beautifully designed quarterly zine focused on trans male culture. Now on their ninth issue, each issue of Original Plumbing is centered around a different aspect of FTM culture: work, school, family, hair, fashion, health + sex, the bedroom, the environment, and the latest issue: entertainment. (more…)
We Are the Youth’s New Intern Reports on the Victory Prom!
Victory Prom, Friday, March 23rd, 2012
The Center, New York, New York
Photos and write-up by Sarah Nakano
On March 23rd 2012, The New School + The LGBT Center (on 13th Street) partnered to host an event which granted me the opportunity to:
– support the end of world-wide sexual and gendered violence
– re-live the glory of my high school awkwardness
– dance // make uncoordinated, jagged movements in the corner by myself
– eat delicious cookies
– wear jeans to the prom for the second time (I wore jeans + a leather sleeveless jacket to my senior prom, judge me)
We Are the Youth’s New Intern Reports on the Miss Lez Pagaent!
Miss Lez Pageant, March 18th, 2012
The Knitting Factory, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
By Sarah Nakano
On Sunday night, I attended the Miss Lez Pageant at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. I don’t mean to be dramatic but IT WAS THE EPITOME OF PAGEANTRY EXCELLENCE and perhaps the greatest, gayest, glittery-est spectacle to have ever taken place. Ever. The event was hosted by comedian Murray Hill, who, wearing his powder blue suit, “put the ‘KING’ back in fucking funny.” After multiple dramatic introductions, Murray Hill emerged on stage and proceeded to do several laps around the spotlight. He introduced the six contestants who were to compete in the upcoming categories of platform, interview, swimsuit, evening gown, and talent (everyone’s talent ended up being stripping, in one form or another). The contestants were: Miss Que(e)ry (Bambi Galore), Miss Rebel Cupcake (Mary Wanna), Miss Choice Cunts (Rebecca Macabre) (my personal favorite), Miss Hey Queen (Brown Meshugana), Miss Dapper Q (Lea Robinson), and the crowd-pleasing Miss Wildcard (Sophia Urista)! (more…)
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!
Service Trip to Out Youth, TX
Purchase College senior, Tamara Brown, led a group of 14 Purchase students to Austin, TX. to volunteer at Out Youth, a non-profit organization that provides services to LGBTQ youth ages 12 to 19 in Austin and Central Texas.
Here is Tamara’s perspective:
We were welcomed with open arms and started the week off right with a pot luck organized by the staff at Out Youth. Over the next few days, we attended the Martin Luther King Day March in Austin, assisted in clean-up efforts in the surrounding neighborhoods and organized the space at Out Youth to make it more efficient and practical for those who use it. We also made calls to high schools in Texas to find out whether or not they had a GSA and if they were interested in starting one. Out of the hundreds of schools that we called, only a handful had an active GSA and less than five were interested in starting one. If anything, these calls made it abundantly clear how vital Out Youth is to the local LGBTQ community. On our final night, a lock-in was organized which gave the youth a chance to let loose and be themselves. We played board games, made t-shirts, held a dance off, hung out by the campfire and shared stories. Throughout the night, one student directed short video clips for the Make It Better project.
Out Youth was certainly a home away from home. The staff was filled with spunk, creativity and above all, loads of compassion. The young members of Out Youth, some as young as 12, were inspirational to say the least. They were a diverse crowd, coming from all corners of the country and the world and quite a few members were deaf, which allowed some Purchase students to brush up on their sign language. These teens had oodles of charisma, talent, and smarts; we only wish we could have taken them with us.
Out Youth is a remarkable organization. It just celebrated its 20th anniversary and remains the only organization in Central Texas to provide programs and services specifically designed for LGBTQ youth and their allies. I couldn’t have picked a more deserving organization for our service trip this year. They will certainly hold a special place in my heart for years to come.
To contribute a write-up of an LGBT youth related event, email hello@wearetheyouth.org
Common Threads
From January 14-16, We Are the Youth participant Shonz, volunteered at the 13th Annual Common Threads Youth Empowerment Retreat in Stony Point, NY. Here’s Shonz’s perspective:
This past weekend I got the amazing opportunity to volunteer at the Common Threads Youth Empowerment Retreat. The retreat is a 3 day program for high school students interested in ending violence and oppression rooted in sexism and heterosexism. This year, Common Threads had over 100 participants!
Over the course of the weekend, workshops were held on adolescent issues in a safe and fun-filled atmosphere. Common Threads tries to empower and inform the youth by teaching them how to create positive change in areas like personal safety, political advocacy, and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. If you have ever participated in PrideWorks, Common Threads is like the extended version.
This was the first time that I was able to take part in the weekend. Even though I was a volunteer and not a participant, the experience was motivational and educational. The weekend kicked off with an opening ceremony on Friday night, during which a representative from each group lit a candle. The candles were placed in a circle with one large candle in the middle to symbolize unity.
The next day kicked off with breakfast and workshops. Workshops consisted of Dance, Safer Sex – LGBTQ Style, Healthy Relationships, Health Tips for Trans Youth, Their Friends and Allies and many more. I got to sit in on many workshops and found them all to be fun, informative and interactive. That night, the participants got to “let loose” with a themed dance. This year’s theme Dia De Los Muertos.
The end of the weekend was the most moving of all. For the closing ceremony, the participants and their advisers were asked to get into a circle while the volunteers stood in the middle. As I gazed around the circle I felt excitement radiate though the room; some faces already teary-eyed knowing what was to come next. The famous Common Threads ball of yarn was presented to the enormous circle. I watched eyes light up with anticipation. They were told to wrap a piece of yarn around their wrist and state, in three words or less, what they got out of the weekend. After doing so they would roll the yarn to someone across the room. Words like “hope, love, freedom, friendship, change and family” were in abundance. In the end, we were left with a web of yarn, held strong by all of us working together. The yarn was then cut, leaving everyone with a symbol of our bond.
Common Threads is a weekend where you get to be your complete self and no one judges you for it — instead, they applaud you for your differences. I encourage you to get your school involved and attend the 2012 Common Threads Retreat. I look forward to volunteering again next year!
To contribute a write-up of an LGBT youth related event, email hello@wearetheyouth.org
PrideWorks
On November 16, We Are the Youth participant Schwalb attended PrideWorks, a conference for LGBT youth and their allies in Westchester, NY. The annual conference drew over 600 people. Here’s Schwalb’s perspective:
For all of us queers up here in Westchester, Prideworks is one of those things that you and your queer/activist friends talk about even when the event is pretty far off. In other words, “How great was the keynote this year at PrideWorks?” is sure to help spark a good conversation all the way into January. And there’s good reason! PrideWorks is a day-long conference for queer youth and their allies that provides a space for us to be together and give each other the support that we all need.
This year’s PrideWorks started out with various speakers telling us, the attendees, that we have the power to effect change in our schools and communities, and that by simply attending the conference, we’re acting as pioneers. Next up was Cheryl Wright, with a keynote address that was far from your average speech. After playing a song or two, she invited Eliza Byard, Executive Director of GLSEN, to come up on stage and ask her questions. The questions largely centered around her coming out story and how she became involved with GLSEN, until she started to invite questions from the audience. To me, this seemed symbolic of the kind of community that I want my community, the queer community, to be: one that respects and celebrates the voices of all of its members.
Workshops throughout the day ranged from topics such as bisexuality to homeless queer youth, all providing interesting looks at the queer community, the groups it’s composed of, the intersections of identities, and effective tools for activism. My personal favorite was Growing Your GSA, where I gained a wealth of practical tips for increasing the impact of my activism.
All pre-programmed activities set aside, I think I speak for a lot of PrideWorks attendees when I say that my favorite part of the conference was “the circle.” Since 2009, the circle has been a gathering in the back of the County Center, on the basketball court, where PrideWorks attendees step into the middle of a circle and share feelings, stories, songs, poems, and reflections with one another. It’s really special in so many ways, largely because it gives us a venue to share our experiences and emotions and build a community. Plus, there are some really talented people who perform! For me, one of the more telling moments of the conference was when, in the circle, I decided to leave in a line that reveals my queer identity in a poem I had performed elsewhere, but hadn’t felt comfortable performing fully. I think it says a lot about the support that the conference provides to queer youth who really need it.
To contribute a write-up of an LGBT youth related event, email hello@wearetheyouth.org
The Flash Mob
The Flash Mob: Homophobia Kills Die-In
Grand Central Station, NYC, Friday October 8th, 2010
Queer Teen Reports Back: Attending the Grand Central Die-In
We Are the Youth participant Schwalb attended the Flash Mob: Homophobia Kills Die-In at Grand Central Friday night (see video above). Hundreds protested the homophobia that led to the recent suicides by young gay men. Here’s Schwalb’s perspective:
Grand Central. 6 PM. Friday, October 8th. The main concourse was a lot queerer and a lot stiller than usual. Hundreds of queers and our allies had gathered to “die-in” and call attention to the transphobia and homophobia that’s gripped our nation since its genesis. It seemed as though the media coverage of a phenomenon that many of us had been hearing about and even experiencing ourselves for years and years had served as a wake up call to more mainstream queers and allies. Anti-queer sentiment still kills, it does so on a large scale, and immediate, committed, direct action is crucial if we want to better the situation for queers and queer youth in particular.
Despite cops proudly displaying their heavy-duty zip-ties, when the three whistles blew at a few minutes past six, we all fell to the ground, repeating the names of queer people who had either committed suicide in response to anti-queer bullying or been killed in hate crimes. When we heard another three whistles, we all stood up chanting, “Civil rights now!” Amidst these chants, I felt the same sensation in my ears that I feel when I listen to a carefully arranged six-part harmony. I swung my left arm back and forth like I had learned to do singing “Solidarity Forever.”
After many had gotten tired of chanting, “Civil rights now!” a switch was made to, “Hey hey! Ho ho! Homophobia’s got to go!” Yes, this mantra holds much truth, but I couldn’t help but think that this population dominated by 30-or-so year-old gay, upper-middle class, white cismen wasn’t thinking about the BTQ part of our alphabet cereal acronym, or the fact that when we think about any of the “ism’s,” one or more other “ism” intersects with the original ism, and we thus need to be considering rankism in addition to heterosexism and cissexism (which, judging by the chants, wasn’t really being thought about either) if we seek to combat any sort of discrimination.
To be honest, though I fully support this die-in and believe in the potential for positive change presented by actions like these, the reading of Kate Bornstein’s Gender Outlaws at Bluestockings that I attended after the die-in meant just as much, if not more to me, a queer teen, on a lot of levels, despite the fact that it had decidedly less media coverage. The very idea of the book as a collection of queer stories implies the idea of creating a patchwork of queerdom that, when sewn together, becomes a network of support and a powerful force for positive change.
And this was reflected in the reading: a diverse array of people came together to discuss the experiences of oppression we have in common, the experiences of oppression we don’t have in common, and how all of these experiences play off of each other in our creation of a supportive and inclusive community and society. All in all, as a struggling, queer teen, what gave me the support I need last night were the stories I heard and the email address that one of the contributors wrote in my copy of Gender Outlaws.
