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Pride for Youth celebrates Supreme Court's gay marriage decision

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Sixteen-year-old Sean Flynn, of Bellmore, called all 263 contacts on his cell phone on the afternoon of June 26, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution guarantees the right to gay marriage.

He made the calls in rapid-fire succession. “Marriage equality is legal!” Flynn yelled into the phone. “Woohoo!” Then he moved to the next number, again and again, for two and a half hours.

He was ecstatic, he said.

Flynn was among the dozens of young people at the nonprofit Pride for Youth who celebrated the court’s decision legalizing gay marriage across the country. Pride for Youth, a Bellmore-based social-service agency and an affiliate of the Long Island Crisis Center, is dedicated to providing for the social and emotional needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens and 20-somethings. Each Friday, from 4 to 11 p.m., Pride for Youth hosts a coffeehouse for LGBT young people, which Flynn has attended since he was 14. More than 800 young adults from across the South Shore and beyond come to the coffeehouse each year, with 50 to 60 turning out on any given week.

At first, Flynn said, he was shocked that the court acted. “You’re kidding me, right?” was his initial reaction. Then, he said, he felt only joy.

“It’s about time,” said Flynn, who studies at Mepham High School and hopes to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology or Parsons The New School of Design in New York City for makeup artistry or fashion.

When the Supreme Court’s decision was handed down, Flynn tweeted at the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, an inflammatory religious group known for its fiery verbal attacks against gays and lesbians. Its website domain name is godhatesfags.com, and it refers to President Obama on its website as the anti-Christ, in large part because of his support for the LGBT community. Church representatives protested outside of Mepham in 2003, charging that three younger members of the football team were repeatedly sexually assaulted during a camp that year because the school had a gay-straight alliance.

“How does it feel to have your mission rejected?” Flynn said he tweeted at the church. He never heard back.

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