Posted on 05/08/2011 5:06:32 PM PDT by artichokegrower
In the fall of 2010, the U.S. became acutely aware of the bullying epidemic that was threatening the lives of many young people who were either lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered identified or were assumed to be by their peers and subsequently bullied, harassed and tormented.
Although the stories were heartbreaking, they awoke a sleeping nation. These young people, many of whom have taken their own lives as a result of their experience, called on us to face a serious problem affecting our kids, our students and our future leaders.
The annual Queer Youth Leadership Awards, now in their 14th year of honoring and celebrating queer youth and their allies, is just around the corner on May 14. QYLA is a distinctive program in that it focuses on the leadership and the promise of youth who are living their lives authentically and not only surviving, but thriving in the experience of being who they are.
These are young people who change lives, exemplify excellence, personify equality, and not only beat the odds, but redefine the expectations all together. The awards program focuses on recognition, celebration and the honoring of our community as a whole: offering the county an opportunity to celebrate its young leaders and the individuals and organizations that support them.
Now more than ever the Queer Youth Leadership Awards are vital. It is a program that offers hope to young people struggling with or discovering their identities. It Advertisement stands in stark contrast to the statistics, misrepresentations, fears and anxieties of a nation whose culture is staring change in the face. This is an opportunity for our youth to see possibility, hope, love, acceptance, power and excellence in a familiar face: their peers.
Given the context of the last year for the LGBT community, San Lorenzo Valley High School is the perfect host for this year's awards program. We have mourned as a community as our young people have been subject to increased bullying and harassment and have rallied to support all youth regardless of orientation from the epidemic of fear that has cut so many young lives short. In a time when our young folks are developing a sense of justice and compassion and youth around the world begin to stand in solidarity against intolerance and bullying, it seems only right that we travel to a part of our county that is often overlooked.
In partnering with the Gay Straight Alliance of San Lorenzo Valley High School, QYLA hopes to increase the visibility and potential for all of its students, residents and community members.
This isn't only about queer youth; many of the youth that are subjected to bullying and harassment for being gay, lesbian or transgendered are not. All of our youth are at risk until our consciousness begins to lift the constraints on our youth's ability to be authentic.
When the day comes where people can be as they will be without fear or prejudice, I suspect we will all be a bit more free and certainly better for it. Not only will our community be strengthened, our humanity will be liberated from the confines of our narrow notions of normality. This isn't about them, this is about you. It's about all of us.
Please consider joining us as we celebrate together on May 14 at San Lorenzo Valley High School. For more information, please visit us online at www.QYLA.org .
Lex is a spoken word artist, activist, educator and the 2011 coordinator of the Queer Youth leadership Awards. In 2009, Lex received the Ally to Queer Youth Award. www.lexisword.com.
That's called cruising.
Not at all surprising to find California's school systems assisting in arranging gay dates with fresh meat.
Ping to your queer youth rainbow interests.
Poor kids just being set up to be victims by the chicken hawks.
I am 100% opposed to bullying in schools, but why would any responsible member of society need to identify particular groups to be protected from bullying? Let’s ban bullying of all kinds, enforce the ban strictly, and move on . . . perhaps even if I can be excused for a radical thought . . . move on to a heavy emphasis on reading, writing, and mathematics in our public schools?
This is a queer story.
Disagree with you. Cultural decay is what we are about. There is no way for any kind of lasting freedom to exist without morality underpinning it.
You’re still getting bullied aren’t you?
LOL!
Rainbows happen when Chuck Norris dropkicks a `Lex’ into the next county.
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THe reason the homo-nazi agenda is so powerful is because those of us who were not on board with it said and did nothing. Now it's a tsunami and the leftists/homo agenda pushers are indoctrinating kids and fools via the media, Hollyweird, all educational institutions, government fiat, judges all over the place, agencies, departments, fags in the military thanks to a Congress that refuses to defund the repeal of DADT, and on and on and on. All because we did nothing. Chickens who still refuse to act. I think mass civil disobedience is the answer. Pulling kids out of school. 65% of parents in CA don't want "gay is good" in schools - but are too chickens*** to either pull their kids out or meet in front of the school with torches and bull horns.
Being nice will get us more of the same.
“When the day comes where people can be as they will be without fear or prejudice, I suspect we will all be a bit more free and certainly better for it.”
Unless of course you vote Republican or are a Conservative or attend a Tea Party event or go to a Christian Church. If that is who you are, then you can just shut up!
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