By Rebecca Keister

Attlboro - It wasn't her decision, but it all worked out in the end.

When Samantha Jacobson, then barely a teenager, came out to her parents, it wasn't by choice.

"My aunt had overheard some of my friends talking, and she told my parents," the 17-year-old Jacobson said. "I didn't tell them."

But when they found out, Jacbosen's said, her parents sat her down and told her they love her, no matter what.

"It was kind of weird and awkward at first, but eventually it was fine," she said. "It made a lot of things easier."

So it makes sense that Jacobson is lauding Gov. Deval Patrick's very public support of his daughter, Katherine Patrick, 18, who went public about being a lesbian in an interview her father arranged with Bay Windows, a gay advocacy paper. Katherine Patrick said in the interview published Thursday that she told her parents she was gay in July 2007, about three weeks after the Legislature rejected an anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution.

She said her father responded to her by giving her a bear hug and saying: "Well, we love you, no matter what."

The governor said that his family agreed to the interview to make the news public on their own terms.

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New York, NY-In an exclusive interview last Friday, May 23, Carl Siciliano, founder and executive director of the Ali Forney Center, spoke, about it, the work it is doing, the challenges, and its future plans. The Center, he said, was established in 2002 as a safe place for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth after he experienced the traumatic event surrounding Ali Forney, a homeless African-American gay youth who was killed on the streets of Harlem

By MERRILL BALASSONE

Sophomore Jacob Shackelford walked an Enochs High School hallway on Friday with his girlfriend on one arm and a black armband that said "Erase Hate" on the other.

The 16-year-old, who is straight, spent most of his day in silence to bring attention to the name-calling and bullying experienced by some of his gay and lesbian classmates. Jacob said he was the target of glares and some homosexual slurs in return.

Straight Enocks High student Amanda Serano, left, stands with lesbian friend Molly White at lunch an the Day of Silence. Photo: Bart Ah You

"I just kept my head high and kept walking," he said. "I support my friends the way they are. I wish more people saw that."

Students at Enochs and Oakdale high schools, along with 6,000 middle and high schools around the country, took part in a silent protest against the harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and their supporters, called the National Day of Silence.

At Enochs, students made armbands that read "Promote Peace," "Love is Love" and "God doesn't hate." Others wore tributes to Lawrence King, an openly gay Southern California eighth-grader who was shot and killed in his school's computer lab in February. Lawrence allegedly was killed because of his sexual orientation.

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The ACLU says in September 2007, Beasley asked her staff to give her the names of students who were couples, heterosexual and homosexual, because she wanted to keep an eye on them to cut down on public displays of affection.

Memphis Principal Daphne Beasley is being accused of posting a list naming the school's teenage gay couples -- without their O.K. -- in an effort to combat public displays of affection.

She's accused of publicly posting the names of those students, including two boys, Andrew and Nicholas, who had just started dating. The ACLU says that in doing so, Beasley revealed their relationship to other students, teachers and even their parents.

In a letter sent Tuesday, April 29, 2008 to Memphis City Schools, the ACLU says the principal's actions violated the students' constitutional rights to equal protection, freedom of expression and association, due process and privacy.

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The data reveals serious and widespread disparities in health and wellness experienced by GLBQ youth in DC Public Schools, and a climate that is often hostile to GLBQ students.

30% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual high school students said they were bullied at least once on school property in the past year. More than a quarter of GLB high school students said they had skipped school once or more in the past month because they felt unsafe in school or on the way to school.

In a climate that is not supportive of GLB students, it is not suprising that GLB high school students in DC Public Schools are also at greater risk for substance use, depression, and suicide. Among the findings: · 23.5% of GLB students have used crystal meth, putting GLB students at 10 times greater risk for crystal meth use than other students · 31.1% of GLB youths say they hade "made a plan about how they would attempt suicide", a number three times greater than that of other students

Still emanating from authorities in the city are reports regarding the entire incident continue to replay the repeated sound ‘pop-pop’ of 23 rounds being fired against the backdrop of the voice of a 9-1-1 operator quizzing a caller and of people screaming. Television images showed interviews with frightened and traumatized witnesses, whose recollections of the sequence of events have already become altered— undoubtedly, their respective minds have gone into “lockdown-mode” as protection from the memory.

In the analyses and blame pointing, one correspondent on the scene representing a New York-based news radio station, 1010WINS, said that the question being asked is how did the gunman obtain a rifle? Other reports coming out of the mall area speak of people terrorized, fearful and traumatized. Another reporter said that what is being looked at and the questions now being asked, after looking at the trail of evidence Hawkins has left, is what had happened to cause him to want to commit, not only suicide, but murder as well.

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The Youth Action Institute is a training for young advocates that are involved in the HIV/AIDS field that want to learn how to work on issues in their own communities. The training will definitely give them the tools and network.

At YAI, participants discover how they can join in the fight against the epidemic from experienced activists living with HIV/AIDS, network with other young people from around the country, and learn the basics of AIDS advocacy from grassroots organizing to lobbying to direct action (i.e. protests and demonstrations!).

When Chakena "C.C." Conway, 21, applied for YAI, she didn't know what to expect. Conway, who was prenatally infected with HIV, had long volunteered in schools, teaching about safer sex. But YAI taught Conway that AIDS activism is more than just prevention and education. "YAI stirred up a lot of passion in me," said Conway, who participated in her first-ever protest "Trick or Treat" protest in Philadelphia, and has since participated in the protest in Myrtle Beach and a HASA for All rally in New York.

 

Do you want to work to end HIV/AIDS as an epidemic, but aren't quite sure how? Are you between the ages of 16 and 26? Are you available from June 25 to 29? If you answered yes to all three questions, then listen closely to these three words that could change your life: Youth Action Institute. Just send in an application ASAP and you could be headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the Youth Action Institute, the jump-off for an incredible summer-long journey to AIDS activism.

Conway became a full-fledged AIDS activist after YAI

But Conway's biggest accomplishment was her YAI project.YAI participants also plan an eight-week project to work on once the June session is over. The goal of the project is to work with a local AIDS organization and YAI staff to build participation in the Campaign to End AIDS, a national network of people living with HIV/AIDS dedicated to ending AIDS worldwide.

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By Donald E. Skinner

The ministry that goes on at Spectrum Café at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday nights is as important as anything that happens on Sunday morning.

The same goes for OUTreach Resource Center in Ogden, Utah, a program of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ogden, and the Rainbow Youth Alliance sponsored by the UU Church of Rockville, Maryland.

All three venues welcome high school–aged lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, and queer youth as well as youth who support them. All provide food, music, games, movies, and conversation.

David Massey is one of the coordinators of Spectrum Café, also known as “Spectrum Diversi-Tea and Coffee House,” which will begin its eighth year this spring. “We advertise it as a safe harbor for teens who identify as LBGTQ and their straight friends and allies, plus any other youth who are being harassed for religious beliefs, appearance, or abilities,” Massey said.

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