Pride For Youth celebrates LGBT History Month

In honor of LGBT History Month and Coming Out Day, this past Wednesday members of Pride for Youth taped blank sheets of paper to each other’s backs before writing a trait they admired on each person’s sheet.

“The idea was to show how coming out is something to be celebrated, so why not celebrate ourselves,” said PFY Outreach Specialist Nick Dantuno. He continued by describing how he sees coming out as having multiple layers. An individual comes out every time they meet someone new and make a decision to confide in them.

Additionally, there is more to come out about than just sexual orientation. Dantuono said members of Pride For Youth, a community center in Bellmore for LGBT individuals ages 17-30, have come out about their gender expression and HIV status. The community center has events geared towards both transgender and HIV-positive individuals.

Organizations like Pride For Youth have been building support in the LGBT community since Henry Gerber founded the first group in 1924. Gerber immigrated to Chicago from Germany and created the Society for Human Rights after seeing how homosexual individuals were treated there. Flashing forward to 1962, Illinois became the first state to decriminalize consensual same-sex relations. Throughout the civil rights movement the LGBT community made advancements towards equality and nationwide acceptance. Events like the first and second Marches on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights paved the way for advancements like Coming Out Day, which started on Oct. 11, 1988 on the anniversary of the second march.

In the weeks leading up to this year’s Coming Out Day, members of Pride For Youth were interviewed by VideoOut, a non-profit project in its first year of inception. VideoOut’s aim is to create a digital library containing its participants’ coming out stories. The project is currently centered in the tri-state area, but its goal is to expand internationally and include filters for various demographics. The idea is to allow individuals struggling with their sexuality or identity to find a video that speaks to them.

“It’s become a lot easier to come out in this generation,” said PFY Young Men having Sex with Men Services Coordinator Mario Manaseri. He continued by discussing how the modern social media landscape has given way to projects like VideoOut that foster a stronger community among LGBT individuals. Ultimately, Manaseri said, this generation offers more opportunities for education and a willingness to learn about the LGBT community. “When I was in high school you didn’t come out,” Manaseri said. “Now I hear about people coming out as early as twelve.”

PFY Peer Navigator Vinny Maltese had a similar viewpoint to Manaseri, referencing the young ages of openly gay individuals he met at Pride For Youth’s Coffeehouse program. The program meets every Friday and is open to LGBT youth ages 13-20.

Although he agreed with his colleague’s statements, Dantuono argued that LGBT history is still being made. “Today we’re experiencing things that we never have before,” he said as he discussed how much action is being taken to support equality, but cited the reactions against it. Dantuono specifically referenced how while same-sex marriage was legalized last year, our country also saw its first anti-gay march in Washington D.C. “We’re getting our rights and our exposure,” he said. “But there’s backlash and we’re still part of a fight.”

Pride For Youth has been around since 1993 and continues to run programs such as Mpowerment, geared towards African-American and Latino men, Coffeehouse, geared towards LGBT teenagers, and TransAction, geared towards trans individuals. “I’ve been coming to Mpowerment for three years now,” said Sean Cade, 20, of Garden City Park. “I made my first gay friends there.” To find out more about Pride For Youth and for a calendar of upcoming events visit www.longislandcrisiscenter.org/pfy.