Outright Vermont launches statewide outreach effort
Toolbox
By Daphne Larkin Times Argus Staff - Published: January 18, 2008
BURLINGTON – A rainbow-colored bumper sticker, a "queer-mobile" that travels to remote and rural areas, paid spots on the radio, an online resource and a monthly newsletter are all strategies for a queer youth visibility campaign launched Thursday in Burlington.
Outright Vermont, the state's largest "queer" organization in its 20th year that works specifically with youths, wants to make Vermont the most "queer-friendly" state in the country – one person at a time.
The group launched the campaign at its anniversary party Thursday.
"The real issue is the visibility. You are not alone in Vermont no matter where you are in Vermont," said Christopher Neff, executive director of Outright Vermont. "We want to make sure they know wherever they are, they are part of the community."
Neff is talking about youths who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, questioning or transgender. He says his organization wants its resources to be accessible to any youth no matter how geographically isolated they are.
Citing a statistic from the 2005 joint Vermont Department of Health and Education Youth Risk Behavior Survey that 27 percent of this youth population has attempted suicide in the past 12 months, Neff is passionate about building the gay/bisexual/lesbian/transgender (GBLT) youth community.
The organization already knows about bullying and harassment in Vermont schools against that population of student. Neff gets calls frequently from students seeking support, and Outright Vermont conducts education workshops in schools to address these issues.
"We do not talk about sex in schools," Neff said of the in-school programs. "We talk about anti-bullying and anti-harassment issues, particularly how they affect the GBLT community, and it's a problem in Vermont schools so that should be talked about."
Outright Vermont just hired a new education and outreach coordinator and it has a list of schools lined up to visit this year.
The organization is connected with school groups called Gay-Straight Alliance or Queer-Straight Alliance.
The visibility campaign includes a new bumper sticker, and the new newsletter will publicize activities going on with GBLT youth groups throughout the state.
"There are lots of things going on, particularly when you're young," Neff said. If a school doesn't have a Gay-Straight Alliance, "there may be something a GSA near you is doing."
School administrators and students can sign up online to receive the newsletter, which will be sent in print form and will likely be made available online.
The new "queer-mobile" is Neff's car covered in huge rainbow magnets. He and others plan to travel to locations throughout the state to provide age-appropriate GBLT magazines and newspapers – like Bay Windows, Seven Days, The Advocate and Curve – and cultivate a sense of community among the youth.
"I'm going to be trying to coordinate with cafés to take over a nook in the café to be a queer nook for the night so people who have accessed the resource through the Web site can gather there.
"It's also to help them build their network," Neff said. "There may be other GBLT people in their neighborhood and they don't know it. Our job is just to be a fly on the wall to help them gather safely.
"They may decide (afterwards) to meet every month on their own and won't need us."
School administrators or individual students can register at Outright Vermont's Web site and any student in a school that doesn't already have an alliance group formed can also register to request the "queer-mobile" to visit their community.
The group has also purchased 12 promotion spots on Vermont Public Radio to run in the next two weeks. Neff said he hopes members of his organization will sign up to sponsor more spots, at $43 a pop, in the future.
"VPR is not a main target for youth, but part of our initiative is for parents and all Vermonters."
Outright Vermont, which is primarily funded through private donations and grants, is open Monday through Friday from 10 to 6, and it provides free HIV testing during the week from 1 to 6 p.m.
Neff said the space has a stage, couches and a hangout area with reading materials.
"We're the only group that does what we do specifically for queer youth," he said.
"Fundamentally being queer is fantastic," Neff said. "It's not a problem to be solved."
Outright Vermont can be reached at (802) 865-9677 or on the Web at outrightvt.org.
Contact Daphne Larkin at (802) 479-0191 ext.1171 or daphne.larkin@timesargus.com.
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