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
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