NYer Of The Week: Gay Teen Educates Classmates About Acceptance

The latest New Yorker of the Week is stepping up and stepping out by helping to educate others about acceptance. NY1's Vivian Lee has the story.
For high school junior Manny Leyva, being a teenager means more than just worrying about grades, pimples, and being cool.

“I didn't want to be noticed because I was gay,” Leyva says. “I was afraid to raise my hand and speak to the class.”

But last year, Leyva worked up the courage to tell his friends and family. And teachers say he became the only openly gay male at Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies, which has 700 students.

“When I walk around the school hallways and within the street, I don't have to give an image, but I want to give an image to everyone that I am gay, I am a teenager, I am different, and I want to teach them that,” he says. Read more.

It Gets Better - A Message from the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice

The Obama administration's top civil rights official on Thursday released a video as part of the "It Gets Better" Project, highlighting the work of the Justice Department defending gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students.

"If you have been targeted for harassment or bullying because of your sexual orientation, because of your sexual identity or expression, or simply because your classmates see you as different, I am here to tell you that we here in the Civil Rights Division will not stand for it," Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez says in the video. "My colleagues in the Civil Rights Division want you to know that you are not alone." MORE @ Huff Post

LGBT youth attend conference at Yale

Fierce Advocates, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender service and advocacy group, held a conference for high school students Saturday on Old Campus.

The free conference, called Generation Equality, brought 62 students and 20 teachers from 21 high schools in and around New Haven to Yale’s campus. Yale undergraduates led workshops for the students, including “Building Better GSAs (Gay-Straight Alliances),” “How to be an Ally” and “Trans 101,” and brought in professional educators from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and mentoring program True Colors to advise the teachers on how to support LGBT youth. Yale professor Maria Trumpler, director of the Office of LGBTQ Resources, gave a lecture on LGBTQ history for both students and educators.

“We wanted a space for kids to talk about LGBT issues with more resources than their GSA advisers can give them,” said Katie Moug ’13, a co-coordinator of the conference.

The conference is the first of its kind in the region organized by undergraduates, Moug said, adding that events organized by adults are sometimes hindered by the wide age gap between the facilitators and the attendees. She said the Yale students see themselves as a “peer influence” for those who attended the conference, and took a different approach than organizations like True Colors, which hosts the largest LGBT youth conference in the country. more

As Bullies Go Digital, Parents Play Catch-Up

One afternoon last spring, Parry Aftab, a lawyer and expert on cyberbullying, addressed seventh graders at George Washington Middle School in Ridgewood, N.J.

“How many of you have ever been cyberbullied?” she asked.

The hands crept up, first a scattering, then a thicket. Of 150 students, 68 raised their hands. They came forward to offer rough tales from social networking sites, instant messaging and texting. Ms. Aftab stopped them at the 20th example.

Then she asked: How many of your parents know how to help you?

A scant three or four hands went up. Full story at NY Times