LGBTQ & Straight Youth Come Together for The Trevor Project

Though I’ve been having a pretty stressful week, I had an opportunity this weekend to completely reenergize. After a challenging few days last week, I was able to speak with the new Youth Advisory Council for The Trevor Project about marketing, design, and social media. But as much as I was teaching to them, they were able to give me something much more.

I was truly honored to be in the room with these 20 young adults (some of which are not far from my own age) who are making efforts to create change in the world. Not only was the group extremely intelligent and respectful, but they were funny, creative and inspiring. The very diverse group, which consisted of folks from every branch of the LGBTQ and Straight communities, met this weekend to learn about LGBTQ suicide prevention. They learned policies and gained tools to help continue to do the amazing advocacy work that many of them are already doing. 

After a long day of LGBTQ suicide bootcamp on Saturday I had a really hard time leaving the group and saying my goodbyes. I couldn’t help myself but join in with the group on day 2 and share some things they had made with me the previous day as well as sit in on their Transgender 101 course with a special guest.

Daniel Radcliffe, longtime supporter and ally of The Trevor Project came in on Sunday to surprise the group and also learn about transgender issues as well. Daniel himself asked to participate in this bit of training because he said that he doesn’t know much about it. He almost stumbled into the room politely introducing himself and trying not to cause a great deal of commotion or interruption. He participated with the group as if he were one of the group, posing questions and comments when necessary and even sharing personal unfiltered anecdotes with the group. “I’m honored to be in a room with so many people my age that aren’t apathetic to the world,” said Radcliffe. Aside from his participation, the group at large struck conversational gold over the trans issues being discussed. I’m still overwhelmed with the amount of intelligence that was present in the room. I consider myself decently well versed on transgender issues, but was constantly learning from these young amazing people.

I’m still in a state of great awe and amazement over the group. One young woman is writing all of her college papers using gender neutral pronouns to bring awareness to there being more than two genders in the world. A young man was able to recite laws for and against transgender rights almost state by state. And as a whole, shared thoughts and ideas on LGBTQ issues more eloquently than most of our lawmakers today. What an amazing group of people in one room. I was sad to have parted ways on Sunday, but look forward to continuing my conversations with them all and help fighting the good fight.

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