Queer Youth Updates

Congressmember Jimmy Panetta has spoken out on the floor of Congress today to support LGBTIQ/Ally Youth who were silent on the National Day of Silence. Please watch Congressmember Panetta's National Day of Silence speech. Congressman Panetta’s floor speech is also available on his YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages. We are grateful to Congressmember Panetta and his congressional staff for their support of the LGBTIQ/Ally youth community.   … [Read more...]

“For seniors Jake Bain and Hunter Sigmund, it was their final high school dance together. And the two openly gay St. Louis athletes made the most of it this weekend. “Prom this year was amazing,” Sigmund, a swimmer and water polo player told Outsports. “It was my fourth school dance with Jake and I couldn’t have imagined a better way to spend our last high school dance.” Out Sports … [Read more...]

Jamie Cutter isn’t shy about sexual health. She teaches sexual education at Delta Charter High School to a generation that’s breaking traditional gender expectations. But when she started teaching it four years ago, there weren’t many books helping her navigate the waters of intersex, transgender and other non-traditional gender norms in an inclusive way. So she wrote the book herself — titled “Inclusive Sex Education: A Comprehensive Sex Ed Curriculum Guide for Teachers” — aimed at helping other teachers. The spiral-bound text … [Read more...]

Pajaro Valley Pride is awarding $2,000 in scholarship to two students. One scholarship will be awarded to a student based on their academic success, and the other will be awarded to a student who’s been highly active in social justice issues either on campus, and/or the general community. Both scholarships will be awarded to students who will show they are enrolled in an accredited higher education institution. View the attached flyer (download here) for more information on application criteria and how to apply! … [Read more...]

The New Yorker “Edna Chavez, a seventeen-year-old student from Manual Arts High School, in Los Angeles, led the crowd in chanting the name of her brother—Ricardo—who had been killed by a gun. She said she was there to “stand up with the Parkland students” and to “uplift my South Los Angeles community.” A strikingly self-possessed eleven-year-old named Naomi Wadler took the stage to, as she said, “represent the African-American women who are victims of gun violence, who are simply statistics instead of vibrant, beautiful girls … [Read more...]

‘They’re Definitely Linked For Me,’ Says Emma González -  Huffington Post “People soon tweeted that González should run for president. The 18-year-old noted that she already is president — of her school’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA). She then told the Washington Post that she identifies as bisexual, and suddenly her fierce badassery just made that much more sense for a whole lot of people, particularly fellow LGBTQ folks and queer activists for whom self-identity and a willingness to stand up for justice have long been … [Read more...]