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
Color Lines, January 2011
Read the Original Story
Velvet Park, December 2010
Read the Original Story
National Organizations
- Bisexual Resource Center: international organization providing education about and support for bisexual and progressive issues
- Campus Pride: helps develop necessary resources, programs and services to support LGBT and ally students on college campuses across the United States.
- Children of Lesbians & Gays Everywhere: a national movement of children, youth, and adults with one or more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer (LGBTQ) parent/s
- Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN): strives to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression
- Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD): For over 25 years, GLAAD has worked with news, entertainment and social media to bring culture-changing stories of LGBT people into millions of homes and workplaces every day
- Gender Spectrum: provides an array of services designed to help families, schools, professionals, and organizations understand and address concepts of gender identity and gender expression
- GLBT Historical Society: Founded in 1985, the society is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of GLBT public history
- GLBTQ Online High School: Online high school specifically for GLBTQ students
- Human Rights Campaign: advocates on the behalf go GLBT Americans, mobilizes grassroots actions, etc
- International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, And Intersex Association (ILGA): national movement of children, youth, and adults with one or more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer (LGBTQ) parent/s
- It Gets Better Project: created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach – if they can just get through their teen years
- National Center for LGBT Health: committed to improving the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals
- National Center for Transgender Equality: a 501(c)3 social justice organization dedicated to advancing the equality of transgender people through advocacy, collaboration and empowerment
- Parents, Friends, and Family of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG): a national non-profit organization with over 200,000 members and supporters and over 350 affiliates in the United States
- QuitDay.org: preventing smoking in the LGBT community
- The Trans Youth Equality Foundation is a national foundation that provides education, advocacy and support for transgender and gender non-conforming children and youth and their families. In addition to sharing resources, the foundation holds youth retreats and support groups in New England.
- The Trevor Project: a 24-hour, toll-free, confidential suicide hotline for gay/questioning youth
- TransActive: Support and educational website serving trans youth and their families
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.
Nel, 17, NJ
I feel like I’m really lucky to be where I am. My parents, my friends, my teachers — everyone’s accepting. I haven’t lost any friends; I’ve gained friends. All my teachers are cool with it. They mess up pronouns, obviously. My English teacher messed up once, then emailed me to apologize.
My guidance counselor is probably my best friend in the entire world. This year it’s uncomfortable for me to sit in classes where there’s a substitute who’ll call out my entire birth name. So if there’s a substitute teacher, I’ll just go to my guidance counselor’s office and sit there the entire period. We’ll talk about our weekends. I told her I was starting testosterone, and she was like, “Oh my God, I’m so excited for you!”
I’m three months on T. It’s going great. I just think my body’s reacting really well. The changes are awesome. Whenever I go to school, people will say, “Your voice is changing. Your face is changing.” It’s easier for me to talk to new people. Before, I was very self-conscious about not passing.
I just shaved my blonde creeper-stache. It was getting nasty. I’m not that into facial hair. When my trans guy friends would talk about wanting facial hair, it wasn’t something I wanted. I mostly just want to pass. It’s more my upper body that I’m concerned about.
Before, I used to just wear sweatpants every day. I didn’t want to have to get up and get dressed. I thought girls dressed like girls and guys dress as guys. I was never a lesbian. I didn’t want to walk down the street and have people see me as a girl with another girl. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s just not me.
I thought a lot about what other people thought of me. After freshman year, I’m like, “I don’t enjoy this anymore.” I didn’t want to have to get up and get dressed. Since learning what transgender was, everything changed.
I used to hate going shopping. Now I love it. I’m always begging my mom to order more clothes for me. I waste all my money on clothes and food. I really like PacSun. I like skinny jeans, but they tend to show off your curves. I like the PacSun jeans that are straight-legged, and they completely make your hips go away.
I don’t need bottom surgery. It’s at least 30 grand. I could spend that money on something completely different. If I had $30,000 to spend, I’d probably buy a car. My dream car is the Maserati GranTurismo, but that’s way, way above 30 grand.
I do want to make a lot of money someday so I’m financially stable. My parents moved here from Sweden, and they’ve done well. I don’t want to spoil my future kids completely, but I want to give them at least what I have now.
I have no idea what I want to do. My mom talks to me about it every day. I don’t think my mom’s gone a day without mentioning college. I’m like, “Uh huh.” I think she’s just worried that I’m gonna end up as a nobody. I think if she knows that I have a career in mind it will ease her worries. She says, “You’re going to end up working at Burger King or the laundromat.” It doesn’t stress me out that she keeps bugging me. It’s just annoying.
As told to Diana Scholl.
Photo by Laurel Golio, taken in NJ, 2011
To tell your story, email hello@wearetheyouth.org
T-1 Week!
In T Minus 1 Week, We Are the Youth will be traveling to/around the South, photographing and interviewing LGBT youth, and we couldn’t be more excited! Thanks again to all who donated on Kickstarter, making this trip possible and special thanks to Jordan for the write up on ATLBOY!
