There is a facebok event page for the event here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128184740541922&ref=ts if you are in Baltimore, or you know folks in the area please invite them!  Hope to see you Saturday at Red Emma!

Queer Arts Now is a webseries showcasing queer artists Co-Hosted by Ks Stevens and Ashley Brockington who go on location to interview ongoing cultural artists and ongoing live cultural events. In this episode of Queer Arts Now they head to NYC’s Bluestockings bookstore to cover the Kicked Out reading!

A few weeks ago I posted a blog announcing the release of “On the Streets: The Federal Response to Gay and Transgender Homeless Youth” and about hearing one of the report’s authors Nico Sifra Quintana (pictured above at the NYC rally) speak about the report and its implications for federal policy but his coming out to the crowd as a former homeless queer youth.  After the rally I tracked Nico down eager to talk with him further about the report, but also in hopes that he would be willing to be interviewed for the site.  On a personal level I was very touched by his story because  he grew up and experienced homelessness in Oregon, living on the East Coast I don’t often come in contact with folks from out there I knew during that point in my life other than the handful of people I’ve been able to maintain some contact with.  I was really eager to hear about his experience in Oregon, and what it’s like to be an openly formerly homeless LGBTQ youth, working on a national public policy level.

Nico and I got together by phone one afternoon last week and had a really good conversation.  Below is my transcription of most of our call – please note I’m no pro with transcription and it was a long conversation but I’ve done the best I can to be accurate.  I hope that you will find the conversation as stimulating as I did. In addition to telling his story, Nico had a ton of really smart and brave things to say about the crisis of LGBTQ youth homelessness and what can be done to support youth and end the epidemic.

Sassafras:

Can you briefly talk about the report and then moving into why this is personally important to you?

Nico:

The report is on the streets the federal response to gay and transgender homeless youth and started, I was a fellow with the center for American progress last year, we were trying to focus it  on that youth are just being systematically discriminated against and not having access to services that the federal government is funding which is wrong and trying to get this issue in the federal policy arena and trying to get people to pay attention to it. Some of the queer agenda in the policy world like a lot of things in policy it’s often dominated by what is out there and research helps, and lobbying helps, but there needs to be some sort of document or push to when you are trying to convince folks that this is an important issue especially representatives and people of power. The goal to see what literature was out there already, and do some interviews with people who are on the ground, and try to pull something together that could be presented to policy makers and to the policy community to show how important and urgent this issue is to people all over the country and how the LGBT community needs to be on board about this issue and push for action.

Sassafras:

Right after the report came out the Obama administration release their report  that included LGBT youth as a ‘special needs population’ around homelessness, I’m curious what your thoughts are around that, is it going as far as you would like to see it go etc.?

Nico:

I really stand by youth on the ground, and personally stand by the activists and organizers on the ground. I want to push for what they want, and what researchers have found what works. It’s a good first step, to identify LGBT homeless youth as a special needs population but our report highlights a lot of other really important policy changes that would really make an impact that I think should be considered. Such as looking at schools, and family counseling and trying to get families on board and supportive of their kids, and programs for family’s who can no longer take care of their kids looking to make the child welfare systems LGBT inclusive, welcoming and competent. There is a whole list of recommendations in the report but these are just a few suggestions to help make LGBT youth safe when and if their families reject them or if there are abuse issues.

Sassafras:

Are you willing to share your story with readers here on the blog? If so, what was it like for you to do this report and have a really personal connection to the subject?

Nico:

Yeah I’m happy to say my story, I don’t have a lot of opportunity it’s cool. I’m originally from California but my family moved up to Oregon for economic reasons when I was almost in middle school. We were working class sometimes working poor low income Latino family. Moved up to Oregon my mom was a nurse my dad was a chronically unemployed substitute teacher who also has mental health issues. So we lived in Oregon for a while and I came out when I was 13 years old. My family always had serious safety issues, and the men in my family had serious anger management issues and serious violence issues and when I came out it just exacerbated things. For most of high school from when I was 15-18 years old I couch surfed and was away from the house as much as I could be.

I didn’t tell people about this, because I had queer friends I was in the queer community and I was told that if I told anyone about my house where I was supposed to be living there and why I wasn’t there or what it was like to be there, I could be taken away and put in even worse conditions in foster families that were even more homophobic. So I didn’t tell anyone, not even the queer youth group that I went to when I was young. I took things into my own hands. This was 1999-2001 so no cell phones, no regular access to the Internet; I didn’t have an email account. I had no idea what serves were out there. Any services I needed, I got involved with activism and tried to make them. It was really horrendous. Looking back, no one should have to go through that. Oregon is rainy and I remember it’s rainy wet muddy cold; I lived out my locker a lot. I put all my stuff in there.

My mother was very supportive so I got some money from her, but I stayed at friends, and girlfriends, and college student houses because it was a college town, or community members. I went from girlfriend to girlfriend and house-to-house. I didn’t spend a lot of time on the streets, but that’s only because I was very good at networking and trying to find a place to stay. No one should have to do that especially not someone in high school they should be worried about their history homework and not where they are going to stay tonight and if they are going to piss off someone because they need to use the bathroom. It was a rough, like a lot of youth it took a long time to realize that wasn’t normal and that experience was not ok and that no young person should be forced to do that.

I think what really helped me was that I got involved in queer activism when I was 15 so I got to make an impact in my community and meet activists who were doing organizing work against anti-gay ballet measures and that sort of stuff so I did a lot of community work there.

Sassafras

Oh, No on 9

Nico:

Exactly, I think I was sixteen when that happened and led a walkout in my high school. I had support but I had to grow up really fast. I had a job working part time I got a paid part time position with the activist organization I worked with but it was rough. My everyday life was I’d go to school, not tell anyone about what had happened, sometimes I’d be in the same clothes as I was the day before. I was hungry all the time, I’d do my home work in late night café and again live out of my locker extra clothes and towels and stuff in my locker. Sometimes I’d shower in the school locker room, stuff like that. It’s kind of amazing looking back how resilient I was and how much I went through compared to what my life is now, and I can’t imagine having to live like that right now.

With all my activism and community work and I was very good at school, loved learning and got a full scholarship to a school back east and never went back to Oregon  except for a week to visit here and there. It was very lonely and I definitely blamed myself because things were very hard and I could never figure out why.  I didn’t understand that everyone else didn’t have to go through the stuff I was going through. Didn’t have to worry about being safe, didn’t have to worry about curfew laws, and weather I was going to be picked up by the police because I was out past midnight in Portland. If I would be detained and my mother would have to drive up and she doesn’t know where I am. All sorts of things and I was very stressed – I feel like I was thirty when I was sixteen and now I feel like I’m 45 and I just turned 27. One of my passions is that no one ever has to go through this again and live through the shame. It’s the policy makers and people in power who should feel ashamed that young people have to go through this.

Sassafras:

I agree completely and I hear you on the feeling 30 at 16. It’s always that fun conversation: ‘you’ve done what? And you’re how old?’ And it’s always like, ‘no that age is just a number, it’s really not how old I am’

Nico:

Exactly. I feel like I’ve had several lives in my life.

Sassafras:

Thank you so much for sharing your story with us and on a personal level I love that you’re involved doing this work and sharing your story and are from Oregon. I think that so many of us from not urban environments our stories look really different

Nico:

Yeah, there is nowhere to go! Where I lived in Eugene was a small city a college town so there were lots of college things to do but it’s not safe for 15 year old to go to college stuff and college parties. There were lots of queer events but they weren’t designed for a 15 year old. I didn’t have a car I ended up walking on the streets at night and there are no street lights and it’s cold and its dangerous there are woods there are animals! You are walking with a bunch of young folks same age as me to go sleep in a school bus down the road because it was the closest place to crash. Depending on if you are in a small city or rural environment or urban environment the needs change and the dangers change.

Sassafras:

Just awareness of services, I’m a year younger than you so a lot of our experiences around access to services are pretty similar in that no one had cell phones, I didn’t have an email address

Nico:

I memorized 50 phone numbers and now I just can’t imagine memorizing 50 phone numbers in my head, now I maybe know two! And really my whole livelihood depending on me remembering 50 phone numbers.

Sassafras:

Right! It was about remembering all these phone numbers and figuring out where you could use a phone to call them

Nico

Exactly. Is there a payphone? Do I have a quarter and then they raised it to 50 cents. It was quite a challenge. And it’s still a challenge because I think a lot of people don’t understand that couch surfing or my experience is homelessness. I still get a lot of pushback of people saying ‘oh you weren’t homeless, you weren’t in a homeless shelter you didn’t spend the nights on the streets. ‘ and it’s like ‘yeah actually I was.’ It’s hard for my family to accept that and people to accept that but people should have access to safe long term and permanent housing and when someone out of fear, maybe I wasn’t kicked out, but out of fear of being brutalized and hurt and harmed, if someone has to leave their house for that it’s homelessness. I could have gone back to my house but every time I did I would pay the consequence for that because it was a very violent situation. I was very smart and got myself out of there, but no one should have to worry about that and live in violence

Sassafras

I agree completely and I think there is a lack of understanding about some of these more nuanced understanding of what homelessness looks like. And our stories are a lot similar in that way and I’ve also had that response ‘what do you mean you were homeless? you didn’t go to a homeless shelter, you were couch surfing it wasn’t the same thing’ etc.

Nico
There weren’t homeless shelters!

Sassafras:

Right!

Nico:

There were soup kitchens, but if you went they would report you to child welfare so it was very dangerous to try to access services.

Sassafras:

I grew up in Clackamas and there were no homeless shelters

Nico:

Oh wow, Clackamas. Oh my goodness, wow. That’s really, that’s hard core

Sassafras:

*laughing * yeah it’s a special place

Nico:

I thought I had it bad in Eugene, Eugene is very liberal.

Sassafras;

Clackamas is funny, its becoming parts are becoming really suburbanized but it is definitely country, and it is super conservative. I always laugh when people say you weren’t on the streets, I always say there were not streets to be on

Nico:

Yeah, and I’ve had this issue too and I’ve talked to other people, and I didn’t realize that I was homeless but I had the long term mental health issues. Just being worried where I’m going to stay and the long term impacts of what this kind of experience does to someone when they are young. I realized that I’m a little bit different than some of my friends in college they are a little bit young and I feel like I’m eighty. I don’t want to go on a trip without knowing where I’m going to stay. I don’t want to go anywhere unless I have food. I’m very reserved and careful about my needs. I was very careful when I finished college I had a job, I didn’t go travel I needed to make sure I had a place to stay. I’ve had a lot of adventure I’m a very strong adventurous person, but these experiences really I tried to figure out why I was different that a lot of these people, there is this experience of homelessness that will always be with me and I’m trying to unpack that. I think this paper helped and I think talking about it helps and I don’t want to be ashamed of it anymore

Sassafras

It completely changes the way you look at things not so much academically, I was a very good student but because I don’t have anything I can relate to these students with

Nico:

Yeah exactly

Sassafras:

I just couldn’t relate to them having this huge crisis about having to learn how to do their laundry for the first time

Nico:

I had no friends. I had very few friends if any true friends in college and I could never figure out why and it was a very lonely experience. And I think it was because I had a really strong support network back home of other formerly homeless queer youth and I felt supportive. When I went to college there was no one in my ecomonimic bracket that I knew of, and no one that I knew of who had experienced the same things I went through and it was very lonely.

Sassafras:

I can’t even imagine. I was supposed to go to Corvallis to be an agriculture major and decided to stay in Portland and went to Portland State which was the best thing I could have done at that point. But, it was this very weird juxtaposition I was trying to be a college student and all my friends were homeless youth and you spoke to it the way we carry those things in terms of how we interact with the world.

Nico:

Exactly. I need to know where I’m going to stay and I need to know that I’m not going to be kicked out and there isn’t going to be a problem

Sassafras

I can’t sleep on someone’s floor that doesn’t want me in their house

Nico.

Exactly…

Sassafras

I’m curious what sort of reactions and responses you’ve gotten about being open about your experiences and doing the work that you’re doing?

Nico:

I’ve been open about my experience in different ways. I was pretty open when I first asked to write the report.  I told them I was formerly homeless youth and that this would be a benefit from my experience in terms of context I have and it was very well received and positive with The Center for American Progress. They are very progressive on this issue from my perspective. For me it’s been a scary thing to come out and tell people about my personal experience, but it’s definitely been a process but I feel more strong and more whole as a professional if I tell them. And I don’t have to tell them everything, but I just like folks to know that this is a common experience, that this is not something that should be stigmatized. It happens all the time and it could be fixed fairly easily and we need to work together to make sure that this doesn’t happen to the next generation and the current generation and to people like me and you and other people we need to be supported and our experiences need to be validated in a professional setting, a personal setting, and a community setting. In a professional setting I’m a formerly homeless, trans identified, Latino, from a low-income background professional, that’s my experience. I’ve had a long road to get where I am I can read and write fluently, I’m in the middle class now which is interesting and I’m a whole person and I think it’s important for me as I move forward wit my career that I’m open with that is who I am.

Sassafras:

There is something very jarring about folks sometimes about realizing that there are these ideas that they have in their heads, even sometimes really progressive awesome people who want to make things better a lot of times  have these images about who homeless youth and formerly homeless youth are. I’m thinking of the rally in New York, there was this moment when you were speaking and I was watching the crowd during the event but when you outed yourself as having been a homeless youth there was this moment in their faces where this was clearly not what they had expected.

Nico:

Yeah, I get that a lot. My current class, I’ve graduated from a top university, I’m a writer, I have a fairly stable job people don’t expect that I would have experiences that I’ve had and that is just I think messed up. People need to understand that there are people who have lots of different experiences and their lives need to be validated and it’s ok for them to talk about their lives, and I make a point to talk about my life and to do it in a way that’s age and culturally appropriate that will get across the message that is most effective. I don’t want to traumatize anyone but it’s fine to say this is my experience and this is what it was like for me and this is happening still and we need to address this issue. No one should have to be homeless in their life, or experience feeling shame

Sassafras:

So much of what I feel is important is that those of us with these experiences talking about them in a larger sense in a way that feels safe and appropriate. It’s interesting to seep peoples reactions and the number of times that people assume Kicked Out is this sociology experiment for me and being like ‘why would you want to work with these people’ and I’m like wow! Let’s unpack this on a lot of levels

Nico:

These people?

Sassafras:

Yeah exactly. It’s very interesting being someone now whose college educated and very middle class in this weird way, there are these things interesting personally for me to unpack but change the way people assume the way this issue is or isn’t connected

Nico:

Statistically I should not be here. Statistically I should be dead. Reality, I should not have happened. That I made it through what I experienced that was just pure luck and vigilance on my part but you should not expect a homeless 15 year old to show vigilance in a time of sever obstacles and stress it’s a time they should be supported completely and embraced not show vigilance. That’s just wrong, and it’s the reason why there are vey few of us that have attained certain levels of education and have gotten to the point of being able to talk about this in a political arena

Sassafras:

Right! And it’s part of what makes me so nervous now around how I do message my own experience like it is not because I’m some special butterfly it’s luck. I shouldn’t be here; I defiantly should not be in this position statistically. Always in the back of my mind are all of the people who are not at the table having these conversations and, why they are not at the table.

Nico:

Yeah. I remember many people who I lived with and people who were also homeless when I was homeless who are not at the table. People who did not get through the experience of being a homeless LGBTQ youth. That’s just really horrendous and really sad. We can do better. We have a responsibly not only on this issue but on human rights social justice issues across the board. We have a responsibility to make the world a more just and equitable place and the two issues that need to be addressed are racism issues and trasphobia issues with these federal policy issues with LGBT homelessness.

Hi Everyone,

This week all the plans that had been put into place regarding my travel to and from Philly have unexpectedly  fallen through due to flakiness on the part of individuals who had assured me for the past several months that they would organize and handle all logistics for my travel and lodging in Philadelphia.

I’ve never had to cancel an event like this, and I especially hate to do it at the last minute but I see no alternative.  I was laid off from my day job this week on top of all the logistics falling apart I’m not in a position to finance the trip.  I hope to reschedule my trip to Philly for the fall when I should be able to have help from other organizations to cover the costs of travel and lodging.

I’m so sorry that this is happening at the last minute, I’ve explored other options to make it happen but at this point I really have no choice but to reschedule in order to give you the best event I can.

Sassafras

Kicked Out just received a fantastic review on Lambda Literary’s website!  They called Kicked Out,  ”a distinct, important book”

You can read the full review here

A month or so ago I learned about Brent Taylor a gay teen blogger whose focus is on reviewing new LGBT young adult books over at his blog The Naughty Book Kitties.  I was really inspired by his work, especially after learning about the response he received from a school librarian when seeking out LGBTQ teen books. She responded to his request by saying “This is a school library. If you are looking to read inappropriate titles, go to a book store.”

Books were one of the most important things to me when I was coming out as a teen. I still have the first LGBT teen book I bought – sneaking it out of the bookstore in my backpack and keeping it under my mattress until I left home when it was one of the things I packed.  That book still lives on my bookshelf with it’s broken spine reminding me how important books were to me. In fact, just days after being kicked out I went to the library looking for a book to help me figure out how to live through this – and there was nothing.  It was then that I pledged to myself that if I made it, I was going to make a book so that no other queer kid would feel alone – Kicked Out became the fulfillment of that promise.

I was thrilled that Brent was excited about Kicked Out and am thrilled that his site has posted a review of Kicked Out  which you can read here, as well as an interview with me about my experiences and the process of creating Kicked Out which you can read here !

“Kicked Out is full of hope and redemption.I can’t overstate how moved I was by the stories in Kicked Out,”

-Constance Jones, J.D., Board President, Ozone House

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Kicked Out Fund which is a partnership that has been developed between Homofactus Press and Ozone House.  Last week Ozone held a garden party to officially kickoff the Kicked Out Fund and to raise awareness about the issue of LGBTQ youth homelessness.

I’m thrilled to have learned that they have  have raised over $3,000 for the fund, 30%  $10,000 goal.  The fund is helping Ozone to provide direct services fo LGBTQ youth in the area. Click here to learn more about the Kicked Out Fund.

“Kicked Out vividly tells us that as adults we must continue to show up in the lives of young people who have been kicked out to mirror back to them their strength, dignity and worth”

-Jay Sennett, Publisher, Homofactus Press

I got the Colin Higgins Youth Courage Award press release in my inbox yesterday,  It was incredible to see that all three winners this year are formerly homeless LGBTQ youth.

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New York, N.Y. – June 28, 2010 – The Colin Higgins Foundation is proud to announce the 2010 Colin Higgins Youth Courage Award winners, a stellar group of LGBTQ youth activists working diligently to bring visibility to some of the most urgent issues facing queer youth today. In spite of obstacles in their personal lives, D’ Ontace Keyes, Paula “Sean” McCusker, and Veronica Tirado have made significant contributions to their communities in crucial areas that have intensified for youth during the current economic crisis, including increasing rates of HIV infection, homelessness, and safety from violence.

Making his mark in LGBTQ communities in Chicago and Philadelphia, D’ Ontace Keyes is currently a Program Assistant at Youth Health Empowerment, a program of Philadelphia FIGHT. Pointing out that African American youth ages 13 to 29 make up 50% of new HIV infections, D’ Ontace explains, “These statistics speak to the importance of empowering and educating LGBTQ youth, especially young men of color who have sex with men.” Of his activism, he continues, “Due to all of the stigma I have experienced in my life with homophobia and being an HIV-positive Black gay man, I feel the need to speak up for myself and others in my community. My motto is empower, empower, empower!”

All three of this year’s honorees have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, a fact that should serve as a call to action to prioritize homelessness and economic justice as LGBTQ issues. The National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce estimates that 20% – 40% of all homeless youth are part of the LGBTQ community. Paula “Sean” McCusker’s experiences with homelessness in Baltimore served as a catalyst for their* activism around the epidemic of LGBTQ youth homelessness. Sean explains, “The more I learned about how my own homelessness was part of a national epidemic, the more I became involved in organizing around the issue.” Sean is currently working with Equality Maryland and the Baltimore Homeless Youth Initiative to create a youth-run drop-in center for LGBTQ youth in Baltimore.

Working with the Safe OUTside the System Collective, a program of the Audre Lorde Project, and FIERCE in New York City, Veronica Tirado has shined in her activism around violence prevention, healing and youth development. “We need to organize and the voice of LGBTQ youth must be heard,” declares Veronica. She continues, “Too many LGBTQ youth experience forms of violence – verbal, emotional, sexual, and physical – and we can’t normalize it. We are not being true to ourselves if we don’t do something about this now.” According to a recent nation-wide survey of organizations serving LGBTQ youth conducted by FIERCE, gender-based violence was ranked as one of the most urgent issues facing LGBTQ youth.

This year’s award winners showcase the importance of how ordinary people making extraordinary contributions to their communities ultimately creates a movement, through reaching out, inspiring and supporting others, building communities, and creating safer space. These vital contributions demonstrate the bravery and resilience of LGBTQ youth, especially given the current state of the economy, where critical resources for LGBTQ youth have dwindled across the country. “The Colin Higgins Youth Courage Awards program is unique in that it rewards and recognizes LGBTQ youth activists who give so much of themselves to their communities, yet they too are struggling against so many barriers in their lives,” says Tierney Gleason, Program Administrator of the Colin Higgins Foundation.

Youth Courage Award recipients receive a grant of $10,000 and will be honored at The Trevor Project Gala in New York City on June 28th. The Trevor Project operates the nation’s only 24/7 suicide and crisis prevention helpline for gay and questioning youth. The awardees will also receive an expense-paid trip to attend the National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change presented by the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce in February.

The Courage Awards were established in 2000 to further the spirit and lifework of Colin Higgins, the acclaimed screenwriter/director, who created such films as Harold and Maude and Nine to Five. Following his films that celebrated characters who displayed honesty and integrity in the face of adversity, the Courage Awards were created to honor ordinary yet remarkable individuals whose courage helped to educate and enlighten others about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer experience. For the first five years of the program, Courage Awards were awarded to LGBTQ youth, adults, and allies. In 2005, the program shifted its focus specifically to support LGBTQ youth. Over the last decade, the Foundation has issued 38 awards to activists hailing from 16 states and Puerto Rico. A list of previous winners can be found at www.colinhiggins.org.

Meet the 2010 Youth Courage Award Winners:

[D' Angelo] D’ Ontace Keyes, 20. Born into an African American family in Chicago, D’ Angelo learned the sting of the slurs “faggot” and “gay” coming from his classmates and his mother beginning at age 6. At age 12, D’ Angelo escaped his abusive home only to encounter even more homophobia within the foster care system. Struggling with his identity, D’ Angelo fought back against harassment and violence by proudly embracing his gay identity and re-naming himself D’ Ontace. He pursued his passion for the performing arts and community activism, studying at the Chicago Academy for the Arts and working as the Fundraiser/Special Events Coordinator for Chicago’s Youth Pride Center. At age 17, D’ Ontace learned he was HIV-positive. Relocating to a new city to attend the University of the Arts, D’ Ontace had to overcome homelessness and discrimination due to his HIV status, while learning to live on his own for the first time. Today, D’ Ontace is a tireless activist leader in Philadelphia dedicated to providing education and working to break down stigma with LGBTQ youth, with a focus on HIV-positive young men of color. D’ Ontace is a Program Assistant at Youth Health Empowerment Project, a program of Philadelphia FIGHT.

Paula “Sean” McCusker, 20. Growing up outside Baltimore in a multicultural family and strict Baptist community, Sean fought to come to terms with their* gender and sexual identity. At 16, after coming out as Queer, Sean experienced widespread rejection, and was subsequently kicked out of the Baptist school they had attended since kindergarten. Undaunted, Sean enrolled in a public high school and pursued the right to safe space by organizing the school’s first Gay/Straight Alliance. Earning a scholarship to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Sean led the LGBTQ student group and worked to implement diversity trainings around LGBTQ issues. As Sean’s activist work gained momentum, financial circumstances took a turn for the worse, and returning home was not a safe option. Sean struggled with homelessness for six months, attempting to continue school without a safe place to live. Sean eventually dropped out of school and decided to pursue activism full-time, realizing that the experience of being homeless and Queer was reflective of a national epidemic facing LGBTQ youth. Sean is currently working with Equality Maryland and the Baltimore Homeless Youth Initiative to create a youth-run drop-in center for homeless LGBTQ youth.
* they/their are Sean’s preferred pronouns.

Veronica Tirado, 18. Due to financial hardships experienced by their mother, Veronica’s family became homeless when Veronica was 13 – a critical time in her life when she was struggling to define herself and take pride in her identity as a Queer-Fem. In spite of the pain and uncertainty she was undergoing, Veronica found a community to give her support, love and guidance at the Safe OUTside the System (SOS) Collective, a program of the Audre Lorde Project. Having experienced violence herself, Veronica was able to begin healing in a positive way through her work with the SOS Collective, which uses community accountability as a strategy to prevent violence directed at LGBTQ and gender non-conforming people of color in central Brooklyn. Shifting her work in a more youth-specific direction, Veronica recently transitioned her activist work to FIERCE, an organization for LGBTQ youth of color in New York. As one of FIERCE’s most active members, Veronica is a graduate of the Education for Liberation Project, an educational internship program for empowerment and leadership development. She has excelled in her contributions to FIERCE’s Youth Development program and played a key leadership role in organizing the first LGBTQ Youth of Color Institute at Creating Change.

About Colin Higgins Foundation

Colin Higgins (1941 – 1988), acclaimed screenwriter, director and producer of films such as Harold and Maude and Nine to Five, established the Colin Higgins Foundation in 1986 to further his humanitarian goals. In addition to the Youth Courage Awards, Colin Higgins Foundation supports organizations that build the power and leadership of LGBT youth (ages 13-24) through grassroots organizing and/or comprehensive leadership development and organizations dedicated to HIV/AIDS service, advocacy and prevention. Colin Higgins Foundation is administered by Tides Foundation. To learn more, visit www.colinhiggins.org.

About Tides

The Tides mission is to partner with philanthropists, foundations, activists and organizations across the country and around the globe to promote economic justice, robust democratic processes, and the opportunity to live in a healthy and sustainable environment where human rights are preserved and protected. Tides is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 that provides an array of services to amplify the efforts of forward-thinking individuals and organizations to make the world a better place. With offices in San Francisco and New York City, Tides provides fiscal sponsorship for over 200 groups across the country, operates and supports green nonprofit centers and granted $108 million in 2008 alone. For more information, visit www.tides.org.

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Copyright © 2010, Colin Higgins Foundation, Tides, Tides Foundation. Other names used in this press release may be trademarks of their respective owners.

(clip from her performance at the City Council Pride event)

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the New York City Council Pride event, and the following is a blog post i began working on that night. I’d intended to get it edited and posted sooner, but it was something that took a bit more time than I’d expcted to find all the right words for, and it needed to take the backseat to other blog posts about pressing news.:

Tonight I’ve been sitting here at the NYC council pride event, and the whole time I haven’t been being anoyed that not once have they mentioned queer youth homelessness – despite Mayor Bloomberg receiving the NYC Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Runaway and Homeless Youth’s final report just this week. I’ve been thinking about pride and how whenever I attend events like this, I find myself deep in thought about what my seventeen year old baby queer self would have thought, how much just knowing an event like this existed, let alone attending it would have meant. I think a lot about how far i’ve come, how lucky i’ve been, and how many are not here.

Country Superstar Shelly Write’s performance put me over the edge though. She came out on the cover of Curve magazine five months ago and I’ve pretty much not looked at the news. I did not read the article. I didn’t watch her interview on Oprah, not because I wasn’t supportive but because it would have been just too hard.

Hearing her voice- reminded me of those roads, the drives with my best friend (who i spent many years secretly in love with) to her barn, my god parents farm, the sanddunes on outside of my cousin’s home town.

I thought of all of that when she opened her mouth, and I don’t think it would be possible for me to put into words what an openly lesbian country music artist would have meant to my seventeen year old hick dyke self. I’m seldom trully sturck speachless- but this is one of those moments. I cannot even describe what that would have meant to me. Can’t even imagine. Yet, sitting here nine years alter at the New York City Hall I could hardly listen to her words, her voice. The music that I loved, hurt me so badly, and is still so connected with the loss. The loss of my family, community, dogs, the ending of the life I’d known.

I sat there surrounded in one of the multiple overflow rooms, surrounded by people who grumbled a bit when she began singing sitting by myself tears welling up because i just couldn’t hold those emotions back anymore.

It makes me beyond happy that Shelly has had the courage to come out. On stage she mentioned conversations she’s been having while out on the road with country music fans since she came out. How many of them don’t understand. I’m so grateful that she’s there having those conversations because I’m confident it will create change in the lives of youth. To make it so someone feels so nearly not alone, and for families to make different directions than so many do/have and will stop the cycle of homelessness of our youth, including those in rural communities.