Kaden, 18, NJ
Two summers ago I played violin as a street performer in New York City as a way to make money for my top surgery. I loved everything about it. I played lots of stuff people would recognize: the Mario theme song, SpongeBob and some classical stuff too.
More than the music, the way you make the most money is by getting to know people. If you would just play, they’d maybe give you a dollar. If I connected with someone, they’d give me $5. If they thought I was homeless, they’d give me $10. If I thought they were giving me money for being homeless, I’d give half of it to charity.
You can be anything when you’re street performing. I would make up different names and different backgrounds. No one cares who you are. I’d test out male names. This was before I was on testosterone, but I passed as male 98 percent of the time. It helped me a lot during my transition.
It’s also a really great way to meet girls. Usually tourists, which was perfect, because we’d hang out and then they’d go back where they came from. I had a whole routine worked out. I’d take them to the Ferris wheel in Toys R Us, then to Magnolia Bakery in the Village. If they hadn’t figured it out already, sometimes I’d tell them I was transgender at Magnolia Bakery. Because you can’t be mad at Magnolia Bakery. But if it’s not going to be something serious, they don’t particularly need to know that I’m transgender.
I’m in community college right now. It sucks, but I’m saving money for top surgery this summer. At school, I don’t tell people I’m transgender. I’m kind of living a double life.
All my applications are in for next year. I’m so excited. I went to visit SUNY Purchase. SUNY Purchase is my safety school, and I like it, and it’s less expensive than the others, so I’ll probably go there. The thing I don’t like about Purchase is I don’t really want to be out, and I know so many people there.
I’m going to go by a new name in college. I got a new driver’s license and everything, but I’m not telling many people. Kaden is my transition name. I had my friends vote on it. Not many people call me by my permanent guy’s name. My parents said they’ll start calling me it, but to just let them know when.
As Kaden, I’m so associated with being transgender. If you meet other trans guys, a lot of times they know who I am because of all the YouTube videos I’ve made. I’m not the first trans person to be on YouTube. A lot of older guys were. Now there are about 200 young trans guys who are actively making videos. Once in a while I get a hate email. If someone happens to stumble upon the video, they might write something nasty, but it’s not people specifically targeting trans people.
Through YouTube, I’ve connected with lots of other people. When I was in London for spring break I organized a meet-up. I’ve organized two and a half other meet-ups in New York City. The one around Christmas at the Center got about 50 people.
I open the invitation to anyone. I just make sure no creepers are checking up. We’ve never had a problem. I’m just paranoid. I have a lot of Internet stalkers.
I’m going to keep making videos because they help me document my transition. They also help people come out. It’s a good way to show transgender people as real people. The media doesn’t cover trans people that much, so we kind of make our own media.
As told to Diana Scholl.
Photo by Laurel Golio, taken in New Jersey, 2011
To tell your story, email hello@wearetheyouth.org
Sarah, 19, Brooklyn, NY
In Japan, if you have tattoos you’re in the mafia. When I saw my grandmother in Japan I had to cover mine up because she’d reject me as part of the family. I also couldn’t tell my grandmother I was gay. Having tattoos and being gay and going to art school? She’d be like, “What are you doing with your life?”
I’m half Japanese and half white. When I’m in America I feel more Japanese, but when I go to Japan I feel really white. It’s strange because I don’t really have a home. My mom has lived in America for 30 years but says she views her time here as an extended vacation. I asked her if she wants to move back to Japan, but she said she’s too old at this point. She’s basically cut off ties with my dad, so I told her she should do what she wants.
I was born and raised in Minnesota, but I didn’t really speak English until I was five. Now English is my primary language. I think in English. I dream in English. My Japanese is slowly fading.
My father doesn’t speak Japanese and my mom’s English is pretty bad. Growing up, I’d talk to my mother in Japanese and my father in English. We were rarely able to communicate as a group.
I’m really tight with my mom, and she’s awesome. Now I don’t really talk to my dad. His personality and my personality don’t get along well. I haven’t talked to my dad about being gay because we don’t talk, but I think he knows.
My mom knows and she understands and is awesome. In emails she told me, “I accept who you are, blah blah blah.” But a month ago she asked me, “Are you having gender troubles? Do you want to convert genders? Is it because of your father? Do you want to be a man?” And I told her, “It’s okay, I like being a girl, relax.” I had to calm her down a little bit.
I don’t think I officially ever came out. It was more of a gradual process. Straight kids don’t have to announce their sexuality, so I don’t think I should have to either. My junior year of high school I went to Oxbow, an arts program in California that has students from all over the country. I guess it was that classic coming-of-age experience for me. It was the first time I was independent and I had to figure out how to live. After that I started being more open about being gay.
Since I moved to New York I started being part of the queer community more. My roommate Mars and I started going to concerts, shows, fundraisers and political things a couple nights a week — whatever was happening. Minnesota has a queer community, but it’s not as visible and accessible as in New York.
I definitely chose my college based on location and the whole experience of living in New York, including the queer scene. I applied to the Cooper Union when I was a senior in high school and was rejected, so instead I went to the School of Visual Arts, but I figured I’d apply a second time to Cooper Union as a transfer student. I didn’t expect to get in, but I did. I was really surprised.
I’m going to be studying fine arts and visual arts in general. I don’t really know what I want to do career-wise, but I’ll figure it out along the way. When I grow up I want to be relevant.
As told to Diana Scholl.
Photo by Laurel Golio, taken in Brooklyn, NY, 2012
To tell your story, email hello@wearetheyouth.org
Sarah
In Japan if you have tattoos, you’re in the mafia. When I saw my grandmother in Japan I had to cover mine up because she’d reject me as part of the family. I also couldn’t tell my grandmother I was gay. Having tattoos and being gay and going to art school? She’d be like, “What are you doing with your life?”
I’m half-Japanese and half-white. When I’m in America I feel more Japanese, but when I go to Japan I feel really white. It’s strange because I don’t really have a home. My mom has lived in America for 30 years, but says she views her time here as an extended vacation. I asked her if she wants to move back to Japan, but she said she’s too old at this point. She’s basically cut off ties with my dad so I told her she should do what she wants.
I was born and raised in Minnesota, but I didn’t really speak English until I was five. Now English is my primary language. I think in English. I dream in English. My Japanese is slowly fading. (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.
PRIDE MONTH IS HERE!
It’s June 1, which is the start of Pride Month.
To celebrate in style, We Are the Youth needs your help!
Spanning the month of June, We Are the Youth is launching a Postcard Campaign and we’d love to have your participation! We’re looking for people around the world to be on our “street team” and help spread the word about We Are the Youth. We want people to share their PRIDE photos with us through Facebook and Twitter, and when they do they’ll be automatically entered to win a $50 gift card and other sweet prizes!
To be part of our street team, email hello@wearetheyouth.org, and be sure to check our 2012 PRIDE PAGE (under Current Events) for all updates!
You’re Invited!!
The Big Day is Almost Here! Come one, come all (seriously — parents, friends, strangers, youth, senior citizens, you get it…) to the opening reception of We Are the Youth’s Window Gallery display at the Leslie/Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Friday April 13, 2012. 6-8pm. Drinks, snacks, raffles, art, good company, sweet tunes will abound! Check our our upcoming events page for more information. Thanks to everyone involved. Hope to see you there.
We Are the Youth work will be on view at Leslie/Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art until May 12, 2012.
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)
The Work Is Up!
You’ll have to visit The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art to see the full show, but here’s a taste of what’s in store when you do! Be sure to check out our Upcoming Events page for all Leslie-Lohman updates and hope to see you at the reception on April 13!
Leslie-Lohman Show!
We’re thrilled to announce that We Are the Youth will be showing work in the Leslie-Lohman Window Gallery from March 12 until May 12. The reception will be held on April 13, 6-8pm and all updates on the L-L show will be posted on our Upcoming Events page.
The Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, established in 1990, morphed into the the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in 2011. Its mission is to provide an outlet for art work that is unambiguously gay and which is frequently denied access to mainstream venues. The Foundation’s Leslie-Lohman Gallery mounts exhibitions of work in all media by gay and lesbian artists with an emphasis on subject matter that speaks directly to gay and lesbian sensibilities, including, erotic, political, romantic, and social imagery and providing special support for emerging and underrepresented artists.
Special thanks to Leslie-Lohman and curator, Julia Haas!
Joey, 19, Brooklyn, NY
Joan Rivers made an absolutely ridiculous comment that there are no gay men at Occupy Wall Street because we care too much about how we look, or whatever. She might just be trying to be funny, but it got on my nerves a little bit. When people say things like that, sometimes I want to be like, “Oh my God, shut up. I know you’re trying to be funny, but it’s incredibly disrespectful.”
A teacher at Pratt didn’t think there was enough of an openly queer presence at Occupy Wall Street, and we wanted to show that’s not the case. That’s why I was under the rainbow banner at Zuccotti Park last week, chanting, “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re not going shopping!” The 99 percent includes everyone, including us.
Occupy Wall Street has been the biggest thing I’ve ever been involved in. I’ve always been ultra-liberal and wanted to get more involved with activism, but there were never things going on around us. I helped with phone-banking for Obama, and I was involved in queer activism at my high school in Baltimore. My high school had a Gay-Straight Alliance, and the Westboro Baptist Church protested us. No one knows why — they do it kind of arbitrarily — but it brought the school together. The school did a huge counterprotest. But life happened, and activism didn’t feel like the priority.
I first got really involved in Occupy Wall Street the day people got arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge. I just went to photograph it, and we thought we were going to be fine. Then we were walking too far. We just ran and got off, so we wouldn’t get arrested. After that it started to feel more real.
I’ve been going down to Zuccotti Park at least once a week. Me and my friends go there and yell so loud and so much, I’ve been losing my voice a lot. I’m trying to get other people active and not feel apathetic towards it. I’ve been beating myself up a little bit for not going more, but midterms happen so I can’t go as much as I want. I plan on going until it’s over, and hopefully it won’t be over for a long time. I don’t want it to fade away or be shut down.
A lot of people I know are very critical of Occupy Wall Street because they don’t seem to understand. People think it’s a group of lazy hippies who want to sit around in drum circles. But you see people of all different ages. A lot of people want to influence change.
At Pratt, we started a group inspired by Occupy Wall Street. We have general assemblies. We had the student walkout and march. Pratt’s a good school, but it has problems. A lot of us have issues with where the funding goes.
My family’s fairly financially secure now, but we’ve been in a situation where my parents were separated and my mother wasn’t working. A lot of people struggle and can’t get out of their situation. It doesn’t work that way, that everyone has the same opportunities as everyone else. I have an $18,000-a-year scholarship to Pratt, but I go to an expensive school and all my other costs are student loans. It’s all money we’ll have to pay back.
I want to be an artist. I study figurative oil and printmaking. It’s essentially the only thing I’ve been able to see myself doing. Almost all the time I think, “What the hell am I going to do? Should I switch to a different school? Should I switch to a more commercial major?” But I think I’m good enough that it’s going to work out.
As told to Diana Scholl.
Photo by Laurel Golio, taken in New York, NY, 2011
To tell your story, email hello@wearetheyouth.org
Joey
Joan Rivers made an absolutely ridiculous comment that there are no gay men at Occupy Wall Street, because we care too much about how we look, or whatever. She might just be trying to be funny, but it got on my nerves a little bit. When people say things like that, sometimes I want to be like “Oh my god, shut up. I know you’re trying to be funny. But it’s incredibly disrespectful.”
A teacher at Pratt didn’t think there was enough of an openly queer presence at Occupy Wall Street, and we wanted to show that’s not the case. That’s why I was under the rainbow banner at Zuccotti Park last week chanting “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re not going shopping!” The 99% includes everyone, including us.
Occupy Wall Street has been the biggest thing I’ve ever been involved in.I’ve always been ultra-liberal, and wanted to get more involved with activism, but there were never things going on around us. I helped with phone-banking for Obama, and I was involved in queer activism at my high school in Baltimore. My high school had a gay-straight alliance, and the Westboro Baptist Church protested us. No one knows why. They do it kind of arbitrarily. But it brought the school together. The school did a huge counter-protest. But life happened and activism didn’t feel like the priority.
