GLSEN

[GLSEN]

18 LGBT Allies Who Advocated for HIV/AIDS Awareness

A big part in the early fight against AIDS was eliminating the stigma associated with it. The people in the best positions to do so were often celebrities who were allies to the LGBT community. They used their fame to bring attention to the epidemic and used their resources to raise money for research and to provide care for those in need. Thankfully this is an aspect of fame that knows no age or generation, as AIDS continues to be a harsh reality today. Here are 18 celebrity allies who have advocated for HIV/AIDS awareness over the past 30 years.

H/T: Out

[GLSEN]

For 25 years, GLSEN has been fighting to make schools safe for all students. This LGBT History Month, we want your help. We want you to GLSEN UP.

GLSEN UP is a movement of action-takers working toward a future where LGBT students and all students feel safe and affirmed at school. By joining, you’ll receive advocacy updates, calls to action, and be the first to know when we have the potential to make history. Join today.

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buzzfeed.com

Meet Dhee, Bangladesh's First Lesbian Comic Book Character

Her stories will be used to conduct 15 countrywide campaigns to educate people about gender and sexuality.

Imaan Sheikh

“Dhee” is a Bangla word which translates to knowledge, wisdom, or comprehension…. “Dhee makes human beings curious, innovate and seek out the unknown. When knowledge merges with our human instinct of compassion, we simply become better human beings,” states BoB’s press release about Dhee.

[GLSEN]

[transgenderstudentrights]

APPLICATIONS OPEN for the 2014-2015 Transgender Student Rights Advisory Committee! Are you interested in being a part of GLSEN’s leadership team to make K-12 schools safe and affirming for trans and gender nonconforming youth? Apply here: http://glsen.us/1jmwkZS 

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Make a difference for trans and gender nonconforming students! Apply today! 

[GLSEN]

action.glsen.org

Apply to GLSEN's Student Ambassador Program!

Are you a middle or high school student? Interested in queer advocacy work? Want to help stop bullying once and for all?

Then apply to join GLSEN’s team of Student Ambassadors, a select group of students who will represent GLSEN in local and national media for the 2014-2015 school year! 

GLSEN Student Ambassadors have been featured in media from the New York Times to CNN to the Huffington Post. Join the team and we’ll also fly you to Los Angeles this July for exclusive media training, opportunities to meet with professionals in the industry, and more.

Applications are due June 2. Apply today! 

[GLSEN]

utsandiego.com

Teen a national leader for gay students

When Laila Al-Shamma was 13 years old, she told her parents that she was gay.

Go Laila!

[GLSEN]

GLSEN’s “Captain,” Eliza Byard, just delivered a Safe Space Kit to a school in Charlotte, North Carolina! Years of planning, along with generous donations, and a ton of organizing by students like you helped us complete our campaign to send one to every middle and high school in the country.

While we know that school staff in many places have already used the tips and tools found in each kit, there are schools where these hidden gems would make all the difference in changing hearts, minds, and the overall school climate. We’re counting on student leaders, such as yourself, to find where in your school these kits are and advocate for their use. What good is a resource if it’s not being used, right?

Do you need ideas of where to look? We have a few ideas below to get you on the right path.

What are you waiting for? Shiver me timbers mate and get looking!

[GLSEN]

Each year, we select a group of outstanding students from around the country to serve as GLSEN Student Ambassadors.  These hard-working and enthusiastic young people help advance our work by sharing their stories and advocating for LGBT issues in K-12 education in all forms of media.  Watch this video and meet our nine newest Ambassadors for the 2013-2014 school year!

[GLSEN]

We’re getting ready for Ally Week and we want to know: When do you step up? When do you step back? Reblog and let us know. Let’s work to become #BetterAllies!

[GLSEN]

“Let Freedom Ring” Commencement Speech & Call to Action
Dr. Eliza Byard, GLSEN Executive Director
August 28, 12013

Fifty years ago, Bayard Rustin stood on this stage leading the vast crowd reciting the demands of the March on Washington.

A movement spoke through him, but the world would not embrace him because he was gay.

Today, LGBT voices are welcomed to this stage. And President Obama has awarded Bayard Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

But we have not yet seen Dr. King’s “great vaults of opportunity” thrown open to everyone. We have so far to go before a truly great education is offered every child.

GLSEN and the LGBT community are your partners in this fight. We fight for millions of LGBT students and all those seen as “different.” They deserve a welcoming audience for their dreams. They deserve to be embraced by their communities for who they are.

Yet every day these youth endure the silence imposed by violence and fear. 

Some have been silenced forever, and we raise our voices in their memory:

Sakia Gunn.

Gwen Araujo.

Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover.

Lawrence King.

Bayard Rustin was a Quaker. He attended Meeting each week, listening for the voice of the Divine that can speak through any one of us. 

Across this nation, voices are ready to rise for opportunity and justice for every young person, regardless of who they are, what they look like or who they love.

Listen for those voices. 

Lift them up so they can be heard.

When we do that, we all shall rise. 

Thank you.

Photo by Rea Carey