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
Queerty, June 2010
Read the Original Story
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!
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
What is the age-range for project participants?
Are there other ways to get involved?
If you’re over 21 and want to get involved, you’re a straight ally, or you just feel more comfortable contributing in another way, there are many ways you can participate. We’re always looking for youth write-ups of LGBT events (here’s an example), guest bloggers, additions to our resource page, the list goes on and on. Send us an email, we’d be happy to hear your ideas!
