GLAAD Fellows Continue to Make Lasting Contributions
March 8, 2010 by Adam @ GLAAD
Since 2000, GLAAD’s Fellowship Program has successfully allowed young, driven graduate students and recent post graduate students the ability to help pave the way for the LGBT community’s future as well as make significant strides in the present. The Fellowship Program was created to develop and grow new leadership in the movement for LGBT equality and provide a unique opportunity to build experience in media activism.
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Nearly working full time in either the New York or Los Angeles offices, fellows are mentored and supervised directly by GLAAD staff members in our Programs and Communications departments. Fellows in the GLAAD Program gain the work experience and professional growth necessary to made headway in an increasingly competitive job market. “Coming to GLAAD has been a truly life-changing experience, both personally and professionally. As a GLAAD Fellow, I have made a true and lasting difference in the LGBT community while simultaneously gaining the skills necessary to becoming an effective advocate and communicator on the national media landscape”, Seth Adams, 2010 Deputy Director/Advertising Fellow.
GLAAD is committed and focused on continuing its Fellowship Programs worth and value. This year, GLAAD received significant corporate sponsorships from the University of Phoenix, AT&T and The Palette Fund. These generous donations allow GLAAD to fund its 2010 Fellows and continue their valuable work. With the support of the University of Phoenix, AT&T, The Palette Fund and others, GLAAD’s Fellows will make lasting contributions to GLAAD’s current work as well as turn their experience into positive change as they become leaders in our society.
“My fellowship at GLAAD has provided a wonderful bridge between my previous transgender advocacy work on campus and the realm of national non-profit LGBT advocacy. I greatly value the opportunity to work with both community members and media sources around the country to ensure full, respectful and accurate reporting about transgender people and stories relating to gender identity and gender expression.”
–Anna Wipfler, 2010 National News/Transgender Advocacy Initiatives Fellow
GLAAD fellows are undoubtedly a huge asset and tremendous value to the work done at GLAAD.
If you are interested in GLAAD’s Fellowship Program, please visit www.glaad.org/fellowships.
Related Posts:Sassafras Lowrey’s Kicked Out Anthology Shares Stories of LGBTQ Youth Homelessness
February 25, 2010 by Anna Wipfler, GLAAD's Transgender Advocacy Fellow
International award-winning artist, former homeless youth, and former GLAAD Young Adult Media Fellow Sassafras Lowrey releases her anthology of writings from homeless queer youth and their advocates and allies.
Kicked Out is the first book of its kind to bring together the voices of current and former homeless LGBTQ youth and combine them with the nuanced perspectives of national organizations like The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and The National Alliance Against Homelessness. Kicked Out is more than an anthology. It is a social movement dedicated to supporting homeless youth, building community with survivors and raising awareness about the epidemic of LGBTQ youth homelessness.
“This anthology introduced by Judy Shepard, gives voice to the voiceless and challenges the stereotypical face of homelessness.”
February 5th marked the national release of the work at the 2010 National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, when Sassafras hosted a signing event and watched the first published copies of her work travel off into the world, where they are bound to draw much needed attention to these often-silenced lives.
Photo Credit: Samantha Box
Published by Homofactus Press, and beautifully illustrated with compelling photography by Samantha Box, this anthology – in Sassafras’ words – is for all those who have “lost their friends, families and homes because of whom they love or how they define their gender.”
Kicked Out has already garnered glowing media attention from a handful of outlets, including a 35-minute segment on “Out Loud,” a queer show on KBOO radio station in Portland, Oregon, featuring interviews with Sassafras, four contributors, and representatives of organizations like the Circus Project, which enable homeless and at-risk youth.
Photo Credit: Samantha Box
To meet the anthology contributors, view resources on youth homelessness, and purchase a copy of Kicked Out, please visit www.kickedoutanthology.com.
Sassafras will continue hosting local release events around the country, including a New York City release on March 19th at The LGBT Community Center and a series of awareness-raising events in Boston in late April. GLAAD is happy to be helping Sassafras pitch her book to mainstream media outlets in hope of bringing these stories into more homes across the country.
We will keep you informed about the progress of this vitally important anthology. We urge all GLAAD supporters to pick up a copy.
Related Posts:Tyra Banks Show Features Story of Teen’s Alarming Attempt to Turn Straight
September 28, 2009 by Tania Torres, GLAAD's Religion, Faith & Values
Tyra Banks interviewed sixteen-year-old Jeffrey who was the subject of a dramatic video posted on YouTube by Manifested Glory Ministries in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where ministers targeted him for a “casting out of evil spirits.” The video shows Jeffrey flailing on the floor surrounded by several church members who call out for the “homosexual demon” to exit the boy’s body—and of him throwing up during the process.
Jeffrey, still sixteen, shared that he was aware of being gay at age five and began to date other boys when he became a teen. He reached out to counselors at True Colors, a pro-LGBT youth organization but three days after a gay prom, sponsored by True Colors, he participated in the exorcism and now says the “evil spirit” is gone but the removal of attractions is “a process.”
Tyra brought on both the ministers from Manifested Glory Ministries and Kamora Herrington of True Colors to discuss the impact of “the belief that gay people are going to hell and are possessed by evil spirits.” Ms. Herrington said that she deals with the harm of these beliefs every week in her work with young gay people— and that too often kids harm themselves because of these beliefs.
GLAAD continues to provide resources to journalists about so-called “ex-gay” programs. When the exorcism video first came out in June, GLAAD directed The Associated Press to speak to the Rev. Roland Stringfellow, who spoke firsthand as an African American who had been subjected to exorcisms as a young gay man. He said he was put in front of the church as members shouted “demon of homosexuality come out of him” and said, “it caused nothing but shame and embarrassment.”
It is also important that media outlets who cover this topic know that the American Psychological Association recently concluded there is no scientific evidence that therapies to change orientation work—and these attempts can be harmful.
Related Posts:GLAAD Educates Future Journalists about LGBT Issues
March 27, 2009 by Sarah K @ GLAAD
Last week I attended the College Media Advisers Convention in NYC to meet with student journalists from across the country. In my work as a Media Field Strategist for GLAAD, I work with journalists every day to educate them on fair, accurate, and inclusive LGBT media coverage.
GLAAD’s Young Adult Media Program works with college journalists and educates using our College Mdia Reference Guide. I presented a workshop about reporting on LGBT issues, and found that the students had great questions.
The room was full of editors-in-chief, arts and entertainment editors, copy editors, and general assignment reporters. Student journalists wanted to know which pronouns to use for 
transgender and genderqueer students, why “alternative lifestyle” isn’t the best term, and how to ensure their coverage is well-done.
Though many of the students had either written or edited a story on LGBT folks for their campus newspapers, one had a particularly troubling story–the newspaper’s adviser, a private college faculty member, had taken the newspapers’ Associated Press Stylebook (which is considered to many, the “Bible of Journalists”) and ripped out the pages that explained the terms “gay” and “transgender.”
Though it was fantastic to hear an editor-in-chief engage us on his challenges and successes while editing a story on a genderqueer student, there fact that even one student newspaper was without the tools to fairly and accurately report on LGBT students is disheartening!
After many of the almost two dozen student journalists in the workshop gave their support for the student, I ensured she had a copy of our Media Reference Guide to take back to her campus. It includes excerpts from the AP Stylebook’s pages on gay and transgender issues, so now her newsroom will have the right tools!
The students in the workshop were from private and public universities, all the way from Maine to Hawaii. Each student publication that was represented at the conference (more than 200) was given a copy of GLAAD’s College Media Reference Guide. Engaging future professional journalists will help ensure their future coverage of our community is fair, accurate, and inclusive!
New Study On Families Reactions to Teens Coming Out
January 5, 2009 by Cindi Creager, GLAAD's Director of National News
Over the holidays, the results of an important new study about the role that family reactions to teenagers coming out can have later in life was released. Especially at this time of year, it was an important reminder of how much it matters that family members are supportive of the LGBT people in their families.
The study, conducted by San Francisco State University’s Family Acceptance Project, was released in the January issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of The American Academy of Pediatrics and picked up in a wide range of media outlets, from The Associated Press to U.S. News and World Report.
The AP talked about the importance of parental response to lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) teens, and the potential implications later in life:
“Parents love their children and want the best for them,” said lead researcher Caitlin Ryan, a social worker who directs the university’s Family Acceptance Project. “Now that we have measured all these behaviors, we can see that some of them put youth at extremely high risk and others are wellness-promoting.”
Among other findings, the study showed that teens who experienced negative feedback were more than eight times as likely to have attempted suicide, nearly six times as vulnerable to severe depression and more than three times at risk of drug use.
More significantly, Ryan said, ongoing work at San Francisco State suggests that parents who take even baby steps to respond with equanimity instead of rejection can dramatically improve a gay youth’s mental health outlook.
One of the most startling findings was that being forbidden to associate with gay peers was as damaging as being physically beaten or verbally abused by their parents in terms of negative feedback, Ryan said.
The study first looked at 51 families and documented a variety of reactions to the coming out process, and then divided those reactions along a spectrum from “accepting” to “rejecting.” The researchers then spoke with 225 LGB adults, documented the responses and reactions they experienced from their families when they came out as teens, and then looked at their behaviors as adults.
Sten Vermund, a Vanderbilt University pediatrician familiar with the study and Ryan’s work, underscored the point that the data is especially significant for doctors and families working to provide guidance to LGB teens:
“So many families of children who are gay, bisexual or transgender, particularly families of gay male youth, think that if they are tough on the kid and tell him how unsatisfactory his gay lifestyle is to the family, he will have it knocked out of him,” Vermund said.
Vermund said he also was impressed by Ryan’s finding that a little bit of familial acceptance could go a long way in increasing a child’s chances for future happiness.
“The Southern Baptist doesn’t have to become a Unitarian,” he said. “Someone can still be uncomfortable with their child’s sexual orientation, but if they are somewhat more accepting and do the best the can, they will do the youth a lot of good. That to me is an important message.”
While some of the language used in these articles misses the mark, the overall message is vitally important We have seen time and time again through our work just how vital that family acceptance is, particularly for young people, and our Be An Ally & A Friend resource has information to help family members and friends be accepting of the LGBT people in their lives.
The response that we’ve had from young people – and their parents – to our public service announcements and the storylines about LGBT teens that we’ve collaborated on for shows like South of Nowhere and All My Children has been an important reminder about how important it is to be supportive of young people. And this study – and the media coverage of the study – gives us even more concrete evidence to remind us of that fact.
Chicago’s Proposed School Would Keep LGBT and Ally Students Safe
September 23, 2008 by Paul
The below post is by Sarah Kennedy, the Central Region’s Media Field Strategist here at GLAAD.
My brother is not gay. He is, however, an ally. He grew up with two openly gay siblings, and at his Midwestern high school he stands up for kids who get bullied because they are gay or people think they’re gay. In fact, he’s just about the only one there who does.
An ally supports Harvey Milk H.S. students
This past Thursday, Chicago Public Schools held a community forum at Chicago’s Center on Halstead to give community members the opportunity to discuss the proposed school. The Chi Town Daily News reported that the plans were well received and that during a “lengthy question and answer session, most audience members voiced support for the project.”
Reading through the media coverage of the proposed school, I thought of how amazing it would have been for me growing up in the Midwest if I had the option to go to a high school where I felt comfortable – and safe – being myself. As a former closeted high schooler, and as somebody who now worries about the safety of the students my brother tells me about, I’m excited Chicago is starting to take these steps.
I remember hearing about the Harvey Milk High School when it opened five years ago in New York City, and the way the media latched on to the story. The school was designed around the needs of at-risk LGBT students, yet the news stories weren’t about students‘ safety or anti-gay bullying. Instead, the focus was on the sensationalistic aspects.
People all over the country questioned the idea of Harvey Milk High School, rather than discussing how truly difficult it can be for an LGBT student to simply walk down the hallway. Sure, my younger brother would stick up for you, but he’s the rare exception, and with teachers who aren’t equipped to intervene it can lead to disastrous situations.
Students who are the victim of bullying, harassment and violence because of their orientation and how they express themselves, like Lawrence King, are not always in an educational environment where faculty and staff have the capacity to ensure their safety and well-being.
Beyond feeling safe from bullying and harassment, there is the basic need to feel okay about yourself at school. I wasn’t out in high school, not because I was afraid of physical harassment, but I wasn’t in an environment where I believed I could have led a sort-of-normal life at school, free from being ostracized.
I’m hopeful that conversation around this school will contribute to a larger national conversation about school safety for LGBT kids. The best option is always to have students feel comfortable and safe at any school. Until that becomes a reality, schools that focus on the safety of LGBT students may just be our best bet.
