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C O N T E N T S
Co-Publishers
Renee LaChance and Jay Brown
Letters ................................ 3
What's going on h e re ___
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Between the Lines ..........
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Just N e w s ...........................
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The Tribal Drum ............... 10
Profile ................................ 11
W inter Reading................. 13
Out About T o w n ............... 16
Eating Out ......................... 19
Just Entertainm ent.............20
Music ................................ 22
Cinema ................................ 23
The Amazon Trail ............... 24
Roseburg R e p o rt................. 25
Just Youth ............................25
Counsel ............................. 26
Classifieds ............................ 27
Editor Jay Brown
Calendar Editor Me y Grace
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Two shocking shoppers at Lloyd Center Dec. 77.
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fia t out •
2 • January 1989
Despite opposition, youth outreach grows
Programs aimed at gay youth are springing up
across the country
BY
D E L L
R I C H A R D S
lthough homosexuality is legal in much of
the country, giving emotional support
and encouragement to gay adolescents still is a
touchy subject. Opponents have called reaching
out everything from “ recruiting” to corrupting
a minor. Even so, programs aimed at gay and
lesbian youth are springing up across the nation.
Virginia Uribe, founder of Project 10, a gay
and lesbian youth program, thinks programs
that help gay and lesbian youth are essential —
no matter what the opposition.
4 ‘Gay and lesbian kids are so enormously
stigmatized,” said Uribe. “ And they internalize
that negative feeling and for some of them, it’s
just so painful, they turn to drugs, or they try to
kill themselves or they engage in high-risk
sexual behavior. They drop out of school and
end up on the streets”
One of the unwritten goals of Uribe’s Los
Angeles-based, Project 10, is to keep gay and
lesbian students in school. Her organization
works through the school system to reduce
few statistics — of any type — on gay and
harassment of gay and lesbian adolescents by
lesbian youth. Very few studies have been done
training teachers and other educators to be
and the homophobia of many researchers has
sensitive to gay and lesbian issues so that they
colored the findings in many cases.
can provide non-judgmental counseling.
“ We don’t know the statistics,” said Uribe.
The San Francisco-based. Project Open
“ But it does appear that students who are deal
Mind, has taken another tack. It is trying to
ing with issues of sexual orientation have a
educate teachers and administrators to gay
much higher risk of suicide. A lot of suicides
issues by getting parents — and interested gay
that are unexplained are really the result of
people — involved with the schools, whether
problems over sexual orientation but a lot of
they have children or not.
times, those things are hidden by the family,”
Dallas-based National Gay Alliance for
Uribe said.
Young Adults, Inc. (NGAYA) has cast its net in
Suicide isn’t the only escape for gay and
a wider circle — to gay youth in all circum
lesbian youth.
stances. Along with a youth hot-line and pen pal
“ We think that there is also a much greater
project, it also is currently creating a handbook
risk for substance abuse because substance
for people who deal with gay and lesbian youth.
abuse is a real problem in the gay and lesbian
In the future, it hopes to open youth weekend
community,” continued Uribe. “ But it’s hard
centers plus provide funds for scholarships and
to determine whether that is because of internal
crisis intervention.
pain — with alcohol being such a problem
But despite the steps forward, gay adoles
anyway.”
cents still fall through the cracks. There are very
A culture that is still very much based on bars
A
doesn’t help young kids realize that alcohol,
too, can be dangerous.
“ Some o f it is because of the socialization
that comes about with bars. But we’re trying to
provide alternatives.”
Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services,
Inc. (GLASS) is providing alternatives for gay
kids who have dropped out. The Los Angeles-
based organization helps the thousands of
runaways who end up on the streets of L. A.
with the dream of a better life in sunny southern
California shattered by the harsh realities of
being broke, young, and gay.
All of these organizations risk censure from
people who would rather pretend gay and les
bian youth don’t exist or force them to become
straight — no matter what the consequences.
But in its own way, each group is doing what it
can to make the transition from being a con
fused and scared gay kid to being a healthy
adult-member of the gay community, a little
less difficult.
•