What if I told you that we’re on the brink of ending the youth homelessness crisis, one of the nation’s most visible and shameful epidemics? Yes, it will take a tremendous amount of work and a huge increase in national funding. For some youth, homelessness will still occur, and we will work to make it brief, rare, and nonrecurring. Given that, I’m happy to say it’s still not an exaggeration or a case of wishful thinking to say there is a clear path to end this crisis, and Point Source Youth and an amazing group of partners, researchers, and collaborators are working to finally end youth homelessness.

Nearly 2 million youth experience homelessness each year. Experts estimate that 50 percent are youth of color and up to 40 percent identify as LGBTQ — and many are both. Most alarming are the reports that the number of LGBTQ homeless youth is increasing. There is a severe lack of services for these young people, and of the services that do exist, few work to prevent youth from becoming homeless in the first place. What is widely agreed upon is that there is little to no data showing what works to end this crisis.

This is why a committed group of leaders came together to launch Point Source Youth in 2015 — to respond to these service gaps by demonstrating how we will effectively end the crisis, and to produce the data to show what works for different youth populations. Point Source Youth works with existing service providers, advocacy organizations, funders, academic experts, and researchers to implement and rigorously test interventions that can drastically reduce youth homelessness.

Most people know that homeless youth face immediate threats to their health and well-being — really, to their very survival. Understandably, most organizations working on this issue prioritize providing these youth with services they need to survive, and therefore have tremendous funding constraints. Doing the evaluation and research work needed to create a road map to truly end the youth homeless crisis takes a back seat to providing immediate services.

This is where Point Source Youth comes in. Our mission is to work in partnership to fund, implement, and measure three highly scalable interventions — family strengthening, short-term host homes, and rapid rehousing — to effectively engage at-risk young people and to drastically reduce youth homelessness. Point Source Youth does this for all youth but places a special emphasis on LGBTQ youth and youth of color because of their disproportionate representation in the homeless population. Importantly, we do not provide services ourselves; instead we partner with local service providers to help them fund, implement, and evaluate these three promising interventions.

Our organization and theory of change are not business as usual. We have adopted several principles that guide our work and help us do things differently. First, we are driven by research and data. We focus on those three interventions because they are scalable and have exciting preliminary indicators of successfully reducing the number of homeless youth in countries around the world and in several U.S. cities. They are not theories — they have demonstrated results but have not yet been adopted and need more rigorous data on their effectiveness and how they best integrate with existing systems.

Most importantly, Point Source Youth is working with leading evaluation experts and academics to make sure that the interventions are having impact and are being adapted to make them better. We are starting this year with a pilot project in Minneapolis, called the ConneQT Collaborative, together with three amazing partners — Avenues for Homeless Youth, the Link, and Reclaim! — to make sure we get the three interventions right.

Second, our approach to paying for these three interventions reflects the complex and expensive nature of the problem we’re trying to solve. Point Source Youth believes that truly ending this crisis requires financial commitments from individuals, foundations, corporations, and public agencies. We believe that bringing together this diverse group of funders is the most sustainable and effective way to achieve our mission.

Third, we want to see long-term impacts. We at Point Source Youth realize our goal is ambitious, especially as we take on such a seemingly intractable problem in our country. But we feel it is too much of a crisis to not act. We need to prove what works and we then need to do more of it. We believe our unique approach focusing on the three interventions and on building the data and evaluation of what works and what doesn’t is fundamental to ending this crisis.

Equally important, we have deliberately designed our research-driven approach and finance model to enable us to learn which populations of youth these interventions work for and then help cities, towns, and rural communities fund them to scale.

Finally, throughout these three principles we have been deliberate to include opportunities for collaboration with the many advocacy organizations, service providers, academic experts, funders, and public agencies already working hard to support and save homeless youth. Point Source Youth has no intention of duplicating work already under way — instead, we want to work in partnership to increase the capacity and technical know-how of the field.

Failing in our mission means failing millions of youth who have nowhere to call home. We’re determined to come through for them. That’s what motivates us to work in solidarity with so many others already in the trenches and end this shameful crisis once and for all. 

LARRY COHEN is president of Point Source Youth.

This Is Our Plan to End Youth Homelessness

The previously anonymous sources who leaked a Christian high school's anti-LGBT admissions form have come forward.

Morgan Douglas Faulkner, a 2013 graduate of the school in question, Trinity Academy, and former senior class president, admitted to being among a group of alumni responsible for leaking the institution’s so-called Statement of Understanding.

As previously reported, the private school in Wichita, Kan., requires applicants and parents to sign this form, which would give Trinity the right to expel or refuse admission to students who are LGBT allies, identify as LGBT, or support LGBT family members.

The form maintained that such “beliefs and practices” run “counter to the standing of a Biblical lifestyle.”

Here is the full clause:

Given the debate and confusion in our society about marriage and human sexuality it is vital that Trinity families agree with and support the school’s traditional, Christian understanding of those issues. Therefore, when the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home is counter to the school’s understanding of a biblical lifestyle, including the practice or promotion of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) lifestyle or alternative gender identity, the school should have the right, in its sole discretion, to deny the admission of an applicant or discontinue enrollment of a current student.

In a statement forwarded to The Advocate, Faulkner outlined the reasons for releasing the document (and this clause in particular) to the press.

“We leaked this document in order to raise awareness about Trinity’s policies to prospective students and parents who are on the fence about sending their children to Trinity for their academics, and ultimately for the greater good,” Faulkner wrote.

In response, Faulkner penned an alternative “statement of understanding,” which condemned the school’s anti-LGBT policy and accused it of “manufacturing shame and moral panic for no cause other than bigotry and deep-seated prejudice.”

Moreover, the statement questioned the veracity of a recent press release from Trinity. In response to outrage over the policy, the school stated it “would not and has not denied admission to a student simply because they have a sibling who is gay” and the “whole intent is to make sure families know what we believe so we can partner together successfully for the good of the students.”

Faulkner said such a statement “explicity contradicts the legalise within their statement of understanding” and reminded administrators and board members of the school’s motto: “Truth. Character. Faith.”

The alumnus also had a message to LGBT applicants, students, and alumni of Trinity Academy.

“It is crucial that each and every one of you know that you are not alone in your struggle. Even after leaving or graduating, it can be very difficult to accept yourself for who you truly are,” Faulkner wrote.

“We want to help you find the peace that may be eluding you, and we have created a hashtag (#TrinityInsurgency) to raise awareness about these issues. Not just for Trinity students and alumni, but for individuals all over the country and the globe who find themselves in a similar position," Faulkner concluded.

Read Faulkner's full letter here.

Activists with the LGBT organization Freedom Oklahoma say they were told by leaders in the state House that a bill to stigmatize trans students would not go forward — but hours later, legislative committee members considered advancing the odious legislation.

The Joint Committee on Appropriations and Budget went ahead and held a hearing on transphobic Senate Bill 1619 Tuesday, The New Civil Rights Movement reports, but recessed with a 10-10 tie vote, This doesn't mean the legislation is dead, though.

Note: SB 1619 will not advance as the vote was 10-10. A tie or a failed vote does not mean a bill is dead but it remains property of JCAB.

— JRLegislativeReport (@JRLROK) May 24, 2016

Senate Bill 1619, introduced Thursday by Sen. Brian Bingman and House Speaker Jeff Hickman, aims to provide a so-called religious exemption for cisgender (nontrans) students who do not want to share a bathroom with a transgender student. 

The legislation itself is unclear about its scope but outright rejects the very existence of transgender people, inaccurately declaring that “sex” is an immutable characteristic that is “identified at birth by that individual’s anatomy.” The bill includes no mention of how schools should accommodate intersex or nonbinary individuals, who may have anatomy that cannot be readily categorized as strictly “male” or “female.”

Further, the bill falsely implies that allowing, for example, a transgender girl to use the women’s restroom is equivalent to allowing a “male” to use the ladies’ room. Essentially, SB 1619 refuses to recognize that, as the Department of Justice recently explained, transgender men are men, and transgender women are women. 

The central premise of the legislation, as the American Civil Liberties Union notes, is that forcing cisgender students to share a bathroom with their transgender peers violates the cisgender student’s freedom of religion. Although the bill does not explain how one’s faith practice might be connected to another person’s gender identity, it does create a new legal path for students — or their parents — to claim their religious freedom has been violated by sharing space with someone believed to be transgender. 

Under SB 1619, any school that allows restrooms, locker rooms, or showers “designated for the exclusive use of the male sex to be accessed by members of the female sex,” or vice versa, must also allow students and their guardians to file a formal request for “religious accommodation.” The bill is unclear what precisely that accommodation should include, though it explicitly states that asking students who are uncomfortable sharing a restroom with trans peers to use a single-occupancy restroom or locker room is “not an allowable accommodation.” 

The legislation does not include directions for where transgender students should relieve themselves while on school grounds. However, it does declare that the current situation is an “emergency” that must be addressed immediately “for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety.” Because of this, the legislation would take effect July 1 or immediately after it was signed into law, whichever comes first. 

Okla. Lawmakers Lie, Revive Anti-LGBT Bill

Share This with A Conservative: Transgender Children Are At Risk

Share This with A Conservative: Transgender Children Are At Risk

At a time when most cable news shows invite guests on TV to argue about so-called bathroom bills, and all too frequently no one talking is transgender, NBC’s Ronan Farrow is showing the media how it’s done. 

Farrow’s latest coverage on the Today show focused on what it’s like being transgender at colleges, and how the fight over where trans people get to pee is just the start. At one point, he talks with a young woman named Eve after using a women’s bathroom on campus at Notre Dame.

“Yeah, it was really scary,” she told Farrow. “I know that I don’t want to hurt anyone, but if someone just says something, I know I could get thrown out.”

Her fear comes through clearly, and it’s a feeling often passed over in esoteric cable news interviews about the current "debate" on equal access for trans people — because there’s no one who is trans on camera to say it from their heart, and from personal experience.

Farrow is clearly dedicated on trans issues (and he's featured trans people before) and had followed Eve’s story for a year as she was forced to live in an all-boys dormitory at Notre Dame.

“I think she would be safer in a girls’ dorm,” says Eve’s mom, near tears. Eve ended up moving off campus. Later, her mom admits feeling “mad at society” that her daughter is constantly in danger.

A recent study published in Scienceshowed that talking with a trans person is a key determining factor in what someone believes about equal rights. Maybe it’s because, when presented with real, live, transgender humans, skeptics are forced to ask a simple question, like Chris Matthews posed to a transphobic guest on his show, Hardball. 

Matthews repeatedly implored the stumped right-winger to “Tell Jenny what bathroom she should use,” as activist and author Jenny Boylan sat on the other side of a split-screen. The anti-trans activist wouldn't answer, but Boylan got the last word in, signing off by saying "I'll be in the ladies' room." 

Sometimes it might seem things are improving because trans people are finally in the headlines, for better or worse. But MSNBC viewers who wanted more thoughtful coverage of transgender people are still mourning the loss of Farrow and Melissa Harris-Perry, who was also known for actually including trans guests on panel discussions that involved trans issues. 

Watch Farrow’s latest report below:

Dear Media: Adopt Ronan Farrow's Model Trans Coverage

Dear Media: Ronan Farrow Models How to Cover Trans People

It’s June and you can’t escape the rainbow.

As an openly gay man, I am proud to wave my rainbow flag. And so do countless corporations, media outlets, and politicians bringing an increased amount of attention to the LGBTQ community this time of year.

For a long time, the issue to rally behind was same-sex marriage. This meant a lot to me and my husband. Last year, a divided Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples can marry nationwide. After much celebration, the LGBTQ community collectively asked, “What’s next?”
 
While youth homelessness and violence in our community are among the most urgent issues we need to address, another, perhaps less talked about issue, is child sexual abuse.
 
Of children who are sexually abused, 20 percent are abused before the age of 8.
 
I was one of them.
 
My landlord’s teenage son approached me on the sidewalk as I was playing and asked if I wanted to see all the toys in the basement. His family had been so nice to mine — I had no reason to not trust him, and my mind was full of curiosity of all the cool toys he would have.
 
It was a nightmare.
 
The things that happened behind those doors are now painful memories that I must live with forever.
 
Today, as the senior director of Safe Horizon’s Bronx Child Advocacy Center, I understand that it wasn’t my fault. I was a target. He had my trust. I was young. I was only 8.
 
But to be honest, there were times in my life that I wondered if I was also a target because my abuser saw something different in me.
 
Available research shows that LGBTQ youth are more likely to have experienced sexual abuse than heterosexual youth.
 
Why?
 
A critical piece is family and community acceptance. My colleague John Pickett, senior director of Safe Horizon’s Manhattan Child Advocacy Center, shared with me a story of an 11-year-old boy whose mom and dad suspected he was gay and were adamantly opposed. As a result, the young boy hid that part of himself that he knew his parents would never accept. When they weren't paying attention, he would secretly talk to other boys online. And it was through social media that he met three men in their 30s. Sexual abuse ensued. The older men had manipulated him into thinking what was happening was OK, preying on the young boy’s innocence and desire for acceptance.
 
Then there is that well-known national statistic that as many as 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ. Abuse and lack of acceptance at home are often contributing factors. But once on the street, these young people are extremely vulnerable and are more likely to engage in “survival sex” — trading sex to meet their basic needs like food, clothing, money, or just a place to sleep at night.
 
Perpetrators often believe that they can abuse with impunity because LGBTQ youth are already labeled as different by society and too often rejected by peers as well as family. Who will believe them if they come forward? Will anyone even care?
 
All of this paints the same picture: Child sexual abuse is an urgent issue and it deserves the LGBTQ community’s collective and immediate attention.
 
We need to stand together and demand justice for our community. But what does justice look like?
 
Unfortunately, in my home state of New York, you receive a devastating present on your 23rd birthday as a survivor of childhood sex abuse. Your ability to file charges on most forms of childhood sex abuse expires.
 
I always say that I came out twice in life. First as a gay man in my early 20s and then at age 28 as a survivor of sexual assault when I was more able to process the horrible thing that happened to me and speak out. But unbeknownst to me, I was five years too late. My opportunity to file charges had expired. I often wonder, why do these arbitrary time limits exist when it can take years for a survivor to come forward? As it did for me.
 
So, now with marriage equality having been realized and with the question “What’s next?” I call on the LGBTQ community to make addressing the issues of child sexual abuse a priority. First, by supporting legislation, such as the Child Victims Act, currently before the New York legislature that would greatly expand the ability of adult survivors to seek civil and criminal damages. It would also create a one-year window for survivors to retroactively file civil damages against their abusers.
 
Other states have already done it. What's taking New York so long? Legislation including retrospective civil windows have passed in California, Delaware, Hawaii, and Minnesota, to name a few. Abusers should not be able to run out the clock. Not in New York. Not anywhere.
 
Survivors of this heinous crime, like myself, deserve justice.
 

Why LGBT Youth Are Susceptible to Sexual Abuse

Tiffany Melecio wanted to go to the vigil at the University of Missouri at Columbia because she thought it would be a safe space for her to honor the victims of the Pulse shooting. 

And she wanted to read the names. She thought some people might have trouble pronouncing the Spanish names properly, so she volunteered because “they deserve to be spoken correctly.” 

Melecio also wanted to raise the voice of LGBT Latino people who, because of feeling the attack on both of their communities, are experiencing the grief differently. 

The graduating Mizzou senior was scared as she took the stage and saw the crowd. It was larger than she thought it would be and unlike what she expected, predominantly white and from the town of Columbia, instead of the university population she felt comfortable in. Melecio says she lives just seven minutes away from Ferguson, Mo., where black man Eric Garner was killed by police, and was on campus and a part of racial injustice protests at Mizzou in 2015. Those experiences have left her more aware of the dynamics of race in society and her vulnerability as a queer woman of color. 

"I am afraid of white people, that is a fact," Melecio tells The Advocate via phone. "Because, as a student on campus, I’ve been yelled, 'Welcome to America' countless times by white men." Melecio’s background is Puerto Rican and Guatemalan.  

"But I felt that it was necessary to put my fear aside for a moment to honor the people that were lost," Melecio says, "because at the end of the day they may have been LGBTQ, but they were also brown and that needed to be said."

What she feared is exactly what happened. Melecio started the speech reacting to the fact that the crowd was predominantly white, and then continued to discuss facts about the LGBT movement and the involvement of people of color. She also noted that she wished there were just as many people from this rallies focused on racial justice. All done in a calm, somewhat timidly powerful manner — and all generally received well by the crowd. Except for a couple of guys and some hateful people on social media.  

College Fix, a conservative website, published the video of Melecio’s speech and the reactions of two men, identified as Carl Brizendine and his husband, Daniel, in a report titled “Mizzou Race Activist Hijacks Orlando Vigil as Gay Community Rebukes her.” But did she hijack an event where she was encouraged to speak at about issues? Or were a couple of men just closed-minded about the thorny issue of race?

In the video, Melecio says to the crowd, “As much as it is awesome that there’s so many people here today, but it’s, like, who are you really here for?”

An unknown woman responds, “We’re here for everybody!” 

Then Brizendine is heard yelling at Melecio, “We are here to be uniting, not dividing, which is what you are doing now.” The crowd responds with dissatisfaction, and then cheers a Mizzou staff member who begins to address Brizendine from the stage. 

“So if you are not comfortable with the fact the people who are murdered are Latino people, that is a personal problem,” says the staff member, identified by College Fix as Stephanie Hernandez Rivera. “You can’t be an ally to one person or part of a person.”

Melecio says she prepared a speech beforehand, but wrote it with a different community in mind. Her community. The social justice community she grew in over the past five years at Mizzou. But with the encouragement of university staff members, she spoke from the heart.

Brizendine seemed to think that Melecio was trying to be divisive by bringing up race and stormed out of the vigil followed by a cameraman who captured his comments — Fox News, unsurprisingly, jumped on the story.

“We’re all hurt,” Brizendine says. “But I’m tired of our community, and I’m not talking about just the LGBTQ community here, but also our community in Columbia, our community in Mizzou … everything has to be divided into color.”

Brizendine’s husband agreed. 

“I expected a community to come to gather … everyone,” Daniel Brizendine says to the cameraman. “I got someone speaking onstage that tried to make it all about her culture, and that’s a common thing now.” 

Her culture was directly affected, it was about people exactly like her — that's why she spoke in the first place. Melecio says she “shut down” after the Brizendines heckled her, and that the experience has left her hurt. She says her intent was not to divide people over the issue of color, but to make sure that it was mentioned. Before she spoke, she says she was probably the only person to specifically mention that the victims were Latino, that they were specifically her culture.

"At the end of the day I'm a brown woman that went up there and said it ... and I got booed, and I got called a lot of mean names,” Melecio says. "And people agreed ... or they didn't understand what I was trying to say."

She’s doesn't regret that she did it, and there were many more people who were receptive to the message than not. The journalism graduate-to-be is hopeful that people see what her message actually was, instead of how it’s been portrayed by some. And she thinks that more understanding of intersectionality — the term coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw referring to the relation of overlapping social identities — will be key to building more understanding among LGBT groups. 

“We need to listen to one another and we need to listen to the facts …and the fact is those were LGBTQ people and those were also brown people,” she says. “We can’t move forward unless those conversations happen.”  

The Time Two White Gay Men Heckled a Latina at a Pulse Vigil

California is hoping to bring schools into the 21st century.

On Thursday, the California State Board of Education voted on new curriculum for its history and social science courses that expands its teaching on LGBT history, including  “a study of the role of contributions” of  “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.”

The new guidelines will extend to elementary, middle, and high school courses, as the Associated Press reports.

“In second grade, California students will learn about families with two moms or two dads,” writes the AP. “Two years later, while studying how immigrants have shaped the Golden State, they will hear how New York native Harvey Milk became a pioneering gay politician in San Francisco.”

During their senior year, students will also study the 2015 SCOTUS decision legalizing same-sex marriage, as well as the nationwide fight over public bathroom access for transgender individuals.

The updated guidelines were based in the 2012 passage of the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act. Sponsored by State Sen. Mark Leno, the legislation mandated that California K-12 institutions include marginalized groups often excluded from public school curricula. This includes people of color, religious minorities, and those with disabilities.

Conservative groups have long sought to overturn the bill, with right-wing organizations petitioning to have it struck down at the ballot box. That attempt failed, unable to collect the minimum number of signatures for inclusion.

The FAIR Education Act faced a number of other obstacles to being effectively put into place, according to the AP. “Its implementation was slowed by attempts to overturn it, competing educational priorities and budget cuts that stalled work on drafting recommendations for the school board and textbook purchases,” the AP reports.

LGBT advocates complained that the initial guidelines, passed in 2014, barely broached the subject of equality at all, teaching a handful of important figures.

Tom Torlakson, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, told the AP that resolving these issues by providing inclusive, comprehensive teaching on LGBT lives is of great benefit to both schools and the youth they serve.

“This document will improve the teaching and learning of history and social science,” Torlakson stated in a press release. “It will give our students access to the latest historical research and help them learn about the diversity of our state and the contributions of people and groups who may not have received the appropriate recognition in the past.”

Allyson Chiu, a junior at Cupertino High School in Cupertino, Calif., said this instruction will most crucially impact LGBT students, many of whom don’t know their history. For students seeking to become comfortable in their identity, she said that can be a lifeline.

"My classmates can solve quadratic equations or cite the elements on the periodic table,” Chiu told the AP. “They can't tell you who Harvey Milk was or the significance of the Stonewall Riots.”

The FAIR Education Act will likely, however, face continued obstacles to implementation, both from conservative groups and parents. Between the December 2015 and the end of February 2016, the California Department of Education received more than 10,000 emails about the bill, as the AP reports.

LGBT History Classes Are Coming to California Schools

Ten people were arrested in New York City today as activists locked down two major police unions in New York City and Washington, D.C. The demonstrators were intending to push back on what they say is a shift in the national discussion about police brutality, focusing on the safety of police officers instead of the safety of black lives.

Black Youth Project 100 and Million Hoodies Movement for Justice NYC chained themselves together at the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association's NYC headquarters, while at the same time activists locked down the legislative headquarters for the Washington, D.C. Fraternal Order of Police. BYP100 live-streamed the New York action on its website, depicting activists chanting and calling for the firing of NYPD Officer Wayne Isaacs, who was placed on modified duty after killing Delrawn Small while off-duty on July 4.

"[The protesters] want to dismantle the associations in recognition of the role that they played in preventing police accountability," BYP100 communications manager L’lerret Jazelle Ailith tells The Advocate via phone. "Most often, when you see instances of police mutilating the bodies of black people, they are not held to the fullest extent of the law, and the ways they are held accountable are totally different than the ways black people and black bodies are criminalized in this system."

Video from the action shows NYPD and security officers attempting to relocate the demonstrators by pulling on the chains protestors used to lock themselves to each other. Micreported that the 10 arrests made stemmed from conflicts between police and protesters. BYP100 is currently raising money to post bail for their members taken into custody during the action. 

#Freedomnow Help get our folks out of jail! pic.twitter.com/9wMSwxBpoM

— BYP100 (@BYP_100) July 20, 2016

Why Black Youth Are Locking Down Police Union Headquarters

Why Young Black Activists Locked Down Two Police Union Headquarters

While the Republican National Convention is busy demonizing LGBT people in Cleveland, the Human Rights Campaign is trying to change the conversation.

The latest volley in that effort hit the web Wednesday, when the nation's largest LGBT advocacy group released a new educational video featuring the fathers of four transgender children — including Wayne Maines, whose daughter Nicole won a landmark legal victory in 2014 after a years-long battle to have her Maine school district recognize her as the girl she is.

In the video, dads of a diverse group of trans youth discuss their experiences in raising and supporting their children, and get candid about the unique challenges presented by parenting a transgender child.

“We are concerned about her safety as she gets older,” acknowledges J.R. Ford, who is raising a young daughter in Washington, D.C. “The only way to try to mitigate that is to continue to educate people, schools, administration, about, what are the issues when you are excluding a certain group of people.”

The men also share the fears they each have as their children grow up in a harshly anti-transgender climate, and the hurt that their families have endured from the backlash against transgender inclusion.

“Anytime there’s vitriol and bile that blows back from parts of society, or in the media, or in print or whatever, or even just peers, that takes a toll,” says Keith Thompson, who lives in Winterville, North Carolina with his transgender son, Skye. 

"Supportive parents can make all the difference in the lives and wellbeing of transgender children," said HRC communication director Jay Brown in a press release announcing the PSA. "In a world that so often hurls insults and condones bullying, these dads exemplify love of family and a steadfast commitment to the health and safety of the children they cherish."

Research has shown that having supportive parents has a profound effect on the emotional well-being of trans children, with one study showing supportive parents reduce the rates of depression and anxiety in trans youth to nearly the national average. On the flip-side, other research has shown that parental rejection can triple the risk of suicide in trans people.

The video is a follow up to one HRC released last year that featured the mothers of transgender children. That first video was viewed more than 7.5 million times, according to HRC.

Watch the moving video below. 

The principal of Center Academy in Pinellas Park, Fla., has been suspened without pay for two weeks and sent to mandatory diversity training and professional counseling, after labeling an OutSports editor "sick" and saying gays should be "put to death" on Facebook.

Steve Kenney is now facing repercussions for his Facebook screed, which came just days after the Pulse shooting in June. As a show of gay pride in the wake of the massacre, Outsports co-founder Cyd Zeigler posted a photo on his page of him kissing his partner. Kenney — not a direct Facebook friend of Zeigler's — responded to the photo by writing "sick." He followed that up with two passages from the Bible, including one where it is advised that gays be "put to death."

Zeigler then discovered that Kenney was a school principal.

Zeigler immediately informed Center Academy, a school for dyslexia treatment, autism spectrum, and attention deficit disorders that began in 1968 and previously won a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. While Center Academy CEO Andrew Hicks responded to Zeigler, he was not specific on what actions would be taken against Kenney.

On Thursday, Hicks finally released a statement.

"We do not condone nor agree with the views or values reflected in the recent personal Facebook statements posted by an employee of our school in mid-June.  On behalf of Center Academy, we extend our sincere apologies to anyone who was hurt or offended by them.

"As we shared with the writer from Outsports, the statements are a serious violation of our school’s Code of Ethics and non-discrimination and social media policies. The employee was suspended without pay for 2 weeks, will be attending mandatory diversity training and professional counselling, and has permanently removed the post from his personal Facebook account. 

Further, in making every effort to ensure this situation does not occur again with any employee of our school, we will conduct mandatory, school-wide diversity training this August (and annually moving forward) at each of our campuses. This is in addition to our yearly Code of Ethics and non-discrimination and social media policy reviews and updates held each August before school begins."

Florida Principal's Facebook Post: Gays Should Be 'Put to Death' 

It’s hard to believe that until recently, there were still laws on the books that made it illegal to be gay. Our legal system may no longer explicitly prohibit same-sex relationships, but we have found new ways to criminalize queer kids. We label them as sex offenders.
 
Across the country, children are put on sex-offense registries for behaviors that range from “playing doctor” to streaking to having consensual sex with peers a few years apart in age. The statistics are scary: out of 800,000 people on registries, one out of four — more than 200,000 — are under the age of 18. A child as young as 8 years old can be labeled as a “deviant.” Additionally, initial investigations show a disproportionate number of these youth are queer.
 
To be clear, kids do commit serious harm. Regardless of the behavior, though, two decades of research have shown that registration does not reduce recidivism or prevent harm in the first place. And the LGBTQ disparity isn’t a reflection of justice — or public safety. It’s an indication of the implicit and explicit bias woven throughout the legal and welfare systems and all the more reason to make eliminating the practice of registering youth a priority.
 
A report, called "Give the Kid a Break — But Only if He’s Straight," found that LGBTQ young people are given harsher punishments than their straight, gender-conforming counterparts. In the study, participants suggested disciplinary consequences for an older teenager having sex with a 14-year-old. A 16-year-old straight culprit was much less likely to end up on the registry than a gay 16-year-old.
 
Queer and gender-nonconforming youth are also more likely to get kicked out of their homes, run away, or be funneled into the child welfare system. Once in the welfare system, their lives are more closely watched and normative behavior that might have elicited a talking to from parents ends up reported to authorities. Nicole Pittman’s human rights report, "Raised on the Registry," found that 90 percent of the 500 youth on the registry she interviewed were in the child welfare system at the time of their arrest.
 
Even the laws themselves can be blatantly discriminatory. In the 2003 case Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court struck down state bans on same-sex sodomy; however, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion included this single negating phrase: “[the] present case does not involve minors, which this comment will refer to as “the minor exception.’” Kennedy was referring to adult-on-minor sexual conduct, but states have used it as a loophole. Texas law, for example, considers sexual contact with a minor under the age of 17 a felony, unless both participants are under 18, no more than three years apart, and they are of different sexes.
 
Once young people are on the registry, the trauma grows. Children are ostracized, socially isolated, and often physically banished from their homes and communities by child safety zones. Their life becomes a struggle for employment, and they must regularly check in with law enforcement; if they fail to report even a minor change in their lives, they can be sent to prison with a felony. LGBTQ youth in prison can also be both the targets of sexual abuse and homophobia. One out of five youth on the registry have attempted suicide. Queer youth already have high rates of suicide, so this adds to the risk.
 
The laws created to protect our children from harm have potential to be very harmful, potentially fatal, and definitely life-altering. Registering youth is contrary to public safety and a costly burden to law enforcement, but it is our LGBTQ youth who are paying the high prices. While they have shown great resilience and courage, this debt is not theirs to pay. As a society, we need to redress this miscalculation and eliminate youth registration laws.

TOM WAHL is chairman of the Liberty Education Forum and NICOLE PITTMAN is vice president of Impact Justice.

How the Sex Offender Registry Destroys LGBTQ Rights

Injustice: How the Sex Offender Registry Destroys LGBT Rights

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just released the results of the Youth Risk Behavior Study that measures results among lesbian, gay, and bisexual high school students. This survey measures a variety of risks, ranging from substance use to seat belt utilization. Most importantly for the Trevor Project, the study identifies the prevalence of suicidal thoughts, plans, behaviors, and attempts.

While the study has previously taken some measurement of the risk behaviors of LGB youth in a few states and large cities, the 2015 data, released today, is unique because it is the first body of knowledge on this topic that depicts a nationally representative sample of LGB youth. Although it is progress that some nonstraight sexualities have been included in this study, we recognize that the wide spectrum of sexualities and gender identities have yet to be studied. More data needs to be collected on transgender youth, as nearly half of young transgender people have seriously thought about taking their lives, and one quarter report having made a suicide attempt.

It is devastating to note in CDC’s study that in the last year, 43 percent of LGB students in grades 9-12 seriously considered suicide, 38 percent made a suicide plan, and nearly 30 percent attempted suicide. The CDC has further identified that LGB students are more than four times more likely than their straight peers to have a suicide attempt severe enough to require medical attention. This 2015 study shows that lesbian, gay, and bisexual students are as much as three times more likely to experience physical and sexual dating violence than their heterosexual peers. As the only national accredited suicide prevention and crisis intervention service for LGBTQ youth, the Trevor Project knows that when combined with other risk factors and a lack of support, such violence can put young people at high risk for suicide. These rates are significantly higher than those of heterosexual students, demonstrating the increased attention that needs to focus on these vulnerable populations. 

While incredibly informative about prevalence, the study does not report on the causes of these challenges. There are certainly many contributing factors to consider, but it is also very important to note what can be done to foster resilience and safety for LGB youth. Families, schools, and communities must come together to reduce the risk for LGBTQ youth suicide by creating safe environments, helping youth connect to family, peers, and other caring adults who can provide support and links to services. You can take part in improving the lives of 1.3 million high school students who report being LGBTQ by showing them that you care about their mental health:

• Connect youth to Trevor’s crisis services. We save young lives 24/7 at (866) 488-7386; TrevorChat.org is available 3-9 p.m. Eastern and noon-6 p.m. Pacific daily, and youth can text Trevor to (202) 304-1200 Thursday and Friday 4-8 p.m. Eastern and 1-5 p.m. Pacific. Young people can also find friends on our online safe supportive community TrevorSpace.org as well as resources at our Support Center.
• Create classrooms of peers who are better equipped to help through acceptance and support with Lifeguard, Trevor’s free online suicide prevention and crisis intervention education program for middle and high school students.
• Advocate for the adoption of comprehensive, inclusive suicide prevention policies in school districts around the country and encourage the use of our Model School Policy, which can help school districts draft suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention policies based on their specific needs.

Help create a brighter future for LGBTQ youth by showing them that despite discrimination, violence, and victimization, LGBTQ youth can thrive, they matter, and they deserve support. More resources available at TheTrevorProject.org.

ABBE LAND is the executive director and CEO of the Trevor Project.

The CDC Paints a Dark Picture for LGB Youth, But Don't Despair

A Tennessee school district that refused to allow a student to wear a T-shirt with a gay-supportive slogan has revised its dress code, settling a lawsuit brought by the state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Giles County Board of Education changed the dress code for reasons unrelated to the suit, but it does address the concerns of the ACLU’s client, Rebecca Young, therefore ending the suit, according to a press release issued this week by the ACLU of Tennessee.

In August 2015, Young, then a senior at Richland High School in Lynnville, wore a shirt to school bearing the words “Some People Are Gay, Get Over It!” No one objected to her shirt until the end of the day, when principal Micah Landers reprimanded Young in the cafeteria, which was filled with students. He told her she could not wear that shirt again or wear any other garment with wording that supports LGBT rights, as such clothing would provoke reactions from other students.

Later, Young’s mother called Phillip Wright, director of schools for Giles County, and he said any clothing with a slogan supporting LGBT people or LGBT rights, or even a rainbow symbol, would not be tolerated, as he considered this to be material of a sexual nature and therefore in violation of the dress code, according to the ACLU. The organization filed suit on behalf of Young in November, saying the school system had infringed on her First Amendment right to free speech.

U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp agreed, granting a preliminary injunction in December against enforcement of the dress code. Pro-LGBT speech was not sexual but political, the judge ruled: “Student expression on LGBT issues is speech on a purely political topic, which falls clearly within the ambit of the First Amendment’s protection.”

Then in June, the school board approved a new dress code, barring students from wearing any clothing with writing on it, except for a school-approved slogan or brand logo. This satisfied the ACLU, because it “no longer singles out one type of speech for censorship,” notes the press release.

Wright told Nashville newspaper The Tennessean the new dress code was not related to the lawsuit, but the suit did bring up issues that needed to be addressed. “We really didn’t have a very clear dress code policy,” he said. “It basically stated the student could wear anything as long it wasn’t offensive. The one thing that the lawsuit has brought to light to us is that we had several board policies that we needed to update.”

Thomas H. Castelli, legal director for the ACLU of Tennessee, expressed satisfaction with the situation. “The court made a pretty strong statement that schools can’t single out students based on their speech,” he told The Tennessean.“I hope this will help other students in the future who are also speaking out on matters of public concern, whether that be LGBT rights or any other issue, without being reprimanded.”

The University of Chicago caused an internet firestorm this week after a letter issued by the dean of students to the incoming freshman class went public, saying in part that the university does not support “so called ‘trigger warnings’, [does] not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”

“I don’t think University of Chicago understands how stupid their comments are and where this has led to,” Campus Pride founder Shane Windmeyer tells The Advocate via phone. “It’s an example of when rhetoric and language is either misunderstood or not in check with what young people are feeling and what young people experience on a daily basis, particularly young people of color or young people who are LGBT and of color.”

Indeed, "safe space" is a term that his group helped to spread in its work over the past 20 years, and he says the meaning has become distorted. Last year, Windmeyer says, Campus Pride began a campaign to reengage universities on what those terms mean and how they can adapt to those interpretations and the needs of LGBT students. But many universities that have had such programs for years may need some additional training so that they remain effective. 

“We don’t want to shelter our students from the real world, nor do students want to be sheltered,” says Windmeyer.  “They know what the real world is like; they just want to know that their campus is going to be a place where they don’t have to worry about being harmed or discriminated against or have any type of violence in their community targeted to them.”

But University of Chicago officials say the idea of curtailing speech to make people feel comfortable is censorship and has no place in the academic setting. Geoffrey Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law and chair of the Committee on Freedom of Expression at the university, says it's the university’s role to prepare students for the real world, including the offensive speech that comes with it. 

“Our job intellectually and otherwise is to train our students how to be effective citizens … to train our students how to deal effectively with an unsafe space,’ Stone tells The Advocate via phone. 

The university appointed Stone, an author and expert on the First Amendment, to chair a committee in response to campuses around the country canceling speakers because of controversial views and other incidents perceived to undermine academic freedom. The committee’s report, issued in 2014, has unintentionally become a blueprint for other institutions to establish their position on censorship and freedom of expression. 

Stone admits that some students, like those with marginalized identities, might have a greater burden to deal with under this policy. At the same time, he says the role of the university is to empower all students to deal with those conflicts in a constructive way, no matter their background. Stone says he did not write the letter but that it seems like a a reinforcement of the university's long history of promoting civil discourse and resisting censorship.

“I think a university that goes out of its way to shield students from encountering ideas that they don’t like is not doing a service to students, it’s not meeting its responsibility to students,” says Stone. 

Windmeyer disagrees that the purpose of a safe space is to shield people from ideas. 

“A safe space is about making sure that you create a welcoming environment where you can have dialogue and debate where people feel always welcomed and accepted,” says Windmeyer, who has worked with campuses across the country since 2001. “It’s not about shutting down divergent ideas or opinions.” 

The conflict comes down to words: what a safe space is, what trigger warnings are, and whether these ideals promote censorship. The intent of safe spaces, as explained by Windmeyer, is to empower colleges to support the needs of LGBTQ students by educating them on creating spaces where students feel comfortable to discuss issues of sexuality and gender identity. But there are varying opinions about the role of comfort in education, and the definitions of “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” are fluid at best. 

From Stone’s perspective, and that of the University of Chicago, students should be free to voice any idea in the academic environment, however unpopular or controversial. And students who disagree are also free to voice their ideas. Stone says that’s part of the learning process. 

“People shouldn’t treat respectfully ideas that are stupid and offensive,” says Stone. “We do believe general discourse should be civil and of mutual respect, but that doesn’t mean you have to respect ideas that you loathe. You just can’t censor them.” 

University representatives confirmed that this letter will have no bearing on LGBT or other safe spaces for marginalized groups existing on campus, and programs to ensure LGBT safety on campus will continue.

University officials advise students to seek help from the Office for Equal Opportunity programs or the university's Bias Response Team if they encounter discrimination or harassment, and note that there are online resources to assist students in these instances. They also say classroom content is broadly protected by the standards of academic freedom and must meet certain criteria to be considered harrassment, including targeting of a person or persons, being abusive, and serving no bona fide academic purpose

Although Windmeyer confirms that University of Chicago has many LGBT-affirming policies in place, he says the letter sends an “awful message.”

“Comfort doesn’t mean that they have to agree with everything — comfort means at the end of the day they know their teacher is there for them, that their teacher understands and has always been respectful to their pronoun usage, or they get what it’s like to be trans,” says Windmeyer. “But that doesn’t mean they can’t talk about the religious freedom bills and what’s happening across this country in a lively, academic dialogue or debate or to write about it in a paper.” 

Does University of Chicago Know the Meaning of "Safe Spaces"? 

The nonprofit organization Campus Pride — which advocates for more inclusive college environments — recently released its Best of the Best list of LGBT-friendly campuses. The list of 30 schools included some old standbys, like Tufts and Cornell, but newcomers too. Check out the universities that are new to this esteemed ranking below, and find the full Best of the Best list here.

Harvey Mudd College, a member of the 5Cs, or the Claremont colleges in Claremont, Calif., is the only new addition to the Campus Pride Index to receive five out of five possible stars. Harvey Mudd offers gender-neutral housing, gender-neutral bathrooms in multiple buildings on campus, and an extensive list of resources for transgender students.

Rating: 5/5 stars
Student population: 807
Tuition: $50,368

Hobart and William Smith Colleges, located in Geneva, N.Y., are gaining recognition on the “Best of the Best” list for their recent efforts with LGBT-inclusive policies. In 2002, the colleges became the first institution in the nation to include an LGBT studies major in the curriculum. In recent years, the colleges have implemented policies about gender-inclusive housing selection, allowing transgender students to select housing based on their gender identity, and preferred gender pronoun usage through the Office of the Registrar and the Office of Student Life. The majority of buildings on campus have gender-neutral bathrooms. Additionally, Hobart and William Smith Colleges have created a list of LGBTQ and ally faculty members with their emails to give queer students a list of mentors on campus.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Student population: 2,400
Tuition: $46,852

Five of the University of California institutions have been featured on the Best of the Best list in previous years, and this year, University of California, Davis, is making its first appearance. The university is equipped with gender-inclusive restrooms in over 90 buildings on campus and an LGBTQIA Resource Center. UC-Davis also created “The Out List” of faculty and staff who identify as a part of the LGBTQIA community to foster mentorship and academic support. Students have the option to live in the Rainbow House, a residential living-learning community for LGBT students.

Rating: 4.5/5
Student Population: 36,104
Tuition: (in-state) $13,951 (out-of-state) $38,659

Some colleges making reappearances on the Best of the Best list include University of California, Los Angeles (4.5/5), University of California, Santa Barbara (4.5/5), University of Illinois at Chicago (4.5/5), University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee (4.5/5), and Washington State University (5/5).

Veterans of Campus Pride’s Best of the Best list include Ithaca College in New York and the University of Pennsylvania, which have consistently received some of the highest ratings since the launch of the Campus Pride Index in 2007.

(RELATED: These 102 Colleges Are the 'Absolute Worst' for LGBT Students)

The Colleges New to Campus Pride 'Best of the Best' List

Groups are still pushing "conversion" or "ex-gay" therapy -- which attempts to turn LGBT people straight or cisgender -- and pouring money into promoting the dangerous practice.

The latest billboard appeared this week in Waco, Tex., according to the Houston Chronicle. "Ex-Gays prove change is possible," the billboard reads, with a beaming man's face appearing next to the words. 

Numerous mental health groups have condemned "conversion therapy,"including the American Psychological Association, and warned it can contribute to depression, anxiety, drug abuse, homelessness, and suicidal ideation. California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, and Vermont have all made it illegal for minors to be exposed to the fradulent practice.

The Waco billboard was not greeted warmly by everyone in the conservative central Texas city. Charley Garrison, a minister of the LGBT-affirming Central Texas Metropolitan Community Church, vowed to hold a Pride event at the site of the sign. Others have countered "ex-gay" billboards by erecting affirming signs challenging the message of "ex-gay" supporters.