Easy Out ?

Gay teens throughout Massachusetts are featured in Today's Boston Globe article called "Easy Out," which paints a rather rosy picture of the coming out process in our state. QueerToday's Trevor Wright is quoted.

The article provides some good historical context to how our state has made things more welcoming for gay teens, but it fails to recognize many of the remaining challenges.

The article emphasizes the high suicide rates in the late eighties and implies that the discussion on gay marriage has made a positive impact to curb those numbers. But statistics from Massachusetts in 2005 reveal suicide rates among gay teens were even higher than the statistics from 1989 that were quoted in the article.

If they had been able to interview the Contradas for this article it would have created an interesting contrast.

Congrats to Trevor! A full page spread - ZEXY!

Congrats to BAGLY for the well deserved positive press.

See Also: Tolerance The Golden Rule with Gay Children: You may not be overjoyed, but they're still your kids (Chicago Sun Times)

Queer Youth Study!

This article ran in this weeks In Newsweekly.





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BAGLY picked as site for queer youth study
LOOKING FOR 200 YOUTH AGES 14-19 TO PARTICIPATE; RESULTS WILL BE USED STATEWIDE



Boston is one of five locations nationwide to roll out a survey for queer youth between the ages of 14 and 19 that, when completed, will be used by state youth service providers as a tool in implementing new programs.



The National Institute of Health awarded the grant funding the survey, which was created by David Huebner of the University of Maryland Department of Psychology. Huebner earlier this year asked BAGLY if they were interested in being a study site and since it fit the BAGLY mission, a partnership was soon formed.



Along with Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and two other locations still to be determined will be survey sites and tasked with surveying a sample of 200 youth who identify as LGBTQ or who have had a same-sex sexual partner within the last year.
"This study is very important to our community. With the firm backing of the NIH, organizations around the country will have comprehensive data to present for funding and to better serve the youth that are accessing their services," said Trevor Wright, a volunteer at BAGLY who is coordinating the Boston survey. "It is a challenge getting youth to come up to the office and take the survey. It works much better when recruiting and implementing the survey in the youth spaces."



To that end, Wright is also working with Boston GLASS Community Center, a drop-in center for queer youth, to recruit survey participants.

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If anyone has any ideas for how I can recruit 14-19 year old queer youth to take the survey can you e-mail me @ dash.boston@gmail.com. I have been working on this since April and only have 50..... Your advice would help a lot!



D.A.S.H. being the name of the whole study that was not mentioned in the article. (Diverse Adolescent, Sexuality and Heath study.) And I am being paid by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (I am not volunteering.)

BAGLY 27th Anniversary

Coming Home, the 27th Anniversary Celebration for the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth (BAGLY, Inc.), will be held on Thursday, May 3, 2007, at the Artists For Humanity Epicenter at 100 West Second Street, South Boston. The reception will begin at 6 p.m., with the program beginning at 6:45 p.m.

Please put this date in your calendar and plan on joining us for a very special evening including complimentary hors d’ouevres, wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as entertainment, awards, and our one-of-a-kind auction.



Hosted by WCVB (Channel 5) TV Morning Anchor David Brown.



Honoring:
Kathleen Henry, Former chair, Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth



and



Lexington C.A.R.E.S.—Community Action for Responsible Education and Safety



The community’s participation this year is very important to us, as we have been given two challenge grants.

New Donor Challenge
Donor Ron Ansin has agreed to match all new gifts we receive, before June 30th of this year—up to $20,000. If you’ve never donated to BAGLY before, your purchase of a ticket to Coming Home will go a long way to helping us meet that challenge.



Current Donor Challenge
The Babson Foundation has agreed to match all gifts—up to $10,000—from current donors who increase their giving before June 30th of this year and also commit to giving that amount again in our next fiscal year.



So, if you are planning on joining us at Coming Home, please bring a friend or two!



It’s never too early to reserve your tickets, at $75/ticket, either by online donation at http://www.bagly.org/ or by calling Paige Kruza, Development Coordinator, at 617.227.4313. Of course if you can’t make it on May 3rd, but wish to support BAGLY through these challenge grants, you can make a tax-deductible donation at anytime. You can also let us know if you want any tickets to go to current youth or recent alumni/ae who will otherwise be unable to afford to attend.



BAGLY is a youth-led, adult-supported social support organization committed to social justice, and creating, sustaining and advocating for programs, policies and services for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth community. BAGLY offers social support, health promotion and youth leadership development through its community outreach programs and services.