YPI – RI Future

July 1, 2016

YPI applauds PVD School Board policy on transgender and gender expansive students

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Youth Pride Inc. (YPI) applauds the new policies of the Providence School Board in its efforts to ensure best practices to providing services and support to transgender students that not only create a more safe and affirming learning environment, but also protects the rights of transgender students in the city’s schools. YPI is the only youth service organization in the state that is exclusively focused on the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth. They serve not only as advocates for our LGBTQ youth, but also as a resource to any school in our state who wishes to engage YPI as partners in the process to supporting LGBTQ youth.

“This policy is a welcome change and one that YPI has been advocating for many years,” said Chris Lauth, Executive Director at Youth Pride. “This policy is a key step in recognizing transgender students’ needs to feel supported from our school leaders and paves the way for our schools to extend this right to them.

Joining the national and regional call to action to support transgender students, both Providence School Board Member Robert Gondola, who sponsored the board initiative and School Board President Nicholas Hemond demonstrated good leadership in the creation and approval of this important policy. The Policy for Transgender and Gender Expansive Students compliments Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza‘s priorities for a school district that is welcoming, accessible and free of discrimination.

For more information about this new policy and/or what it may mean for you as a parent or student, YPI is always available for support and counseling.

June 21, 2016

Youth Pride Inc announces new executive director

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Christopher R. Lauth, Assistant Director of Diversity Programs at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), has been named Executive Director of Youth Pride Inc. (YPI) by the organization’s Board of Directors. Mr. Lauth will officially assume this new role on June 27, 2016.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors of Youth Pride Inc., I am excited to welcome Christopher Lauth as the new Executive Director,” said Board Chair Lisa Carcieri. “His passion and demonstrated leadership serving the LGBTQ community will help the organization advance its mission to meet the unique needs of LGBTQ youth and young adults of our State.”

Mr. Lauth will be YPI’s fifth Executive Director. His background includes founding and leading a gay/straight alliance from 2006-2009 in Northeast Florida and significant experience in higher education, student development theory, non-profit management and social justice education. Mr. Lauth will advance both YPI’s strategic plan and guide development initiatives to better support LGBTQ youth and YPI’s future contributions in youth advocacy/education for the Rhode Island community.

“I am humbled and honored to be serving our Rhode Island LGBTQ youth, helping to create not only a safe space but a space that will allow our youth to show up with all of their identities fully present,” said Mr. Lauth. “Only then will we create an environment that will empower and prepare our youth to recognize their immense personal power when they live true to who they are enabling them to become change agents in our community.”

Lauth has a Master of Science in College Student Personnel Administration from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York and a Bachelor of Arts in U.S. Southern Cultural History from Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida.

YPI was founded nearly 25 years ago in 1992 as a support group within the YMCA of Greater Rhode Island. Having its first meeting in the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center on Brown University’s campus, it quickly outgrew the space and incorporated in 1994. Today, YPI is poised to begin a robust and exciting time in its history to help foster an emerging generation of strong, thoughtful and caring leaders in a global society. Over the past year, YPI has served 850 youth in its drop-in center, providing access to food for over 300 and supported 45 gay/straight alliances in the Rhode Island school system.

June 15, 2016June 15, 2016

RI mourns Orlando, demands action at Pulse memorial service

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Rhode Island continues to respond to the terrible events that took place at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in beautiful, moving and powerful ways. Last night hundreds gathered at the Roger Williams National Memorial, the site of our state’s very first Pride event 40 years ago, in solidarity, mourning and empowerment.

With long-time LGBTQ activist Kate Monteiro acting as introduction and organizer, a series of speakers that included clergy, advocates, and government officials spoke to the crowd about LGBTQ rights, violence, homophobia, Islamophobia and guns.

Dr. Wendy Manchester Ibrahim, of the RI Council for Muslim Advancement told the crowd that she and the RI Muslim community stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ community in Rhode Island in denouncing the terrible actions of the Orlando shooter. The crowd reacted with enthusiasm and support.

Ethan Huckel, board president of TGI Network of RI, urged those in attendance to dismantle the system of oppression that allows such outrages to happen, saying, “The system is not broken. It is a system of oppression and it is working just fine. In this system, politicians use queer people as the bait to rally the hate of voters. In this system, the words “black lives matter” are seen as a threat. In this system, some schools provide education, while others funnel black bodies into prisons. In this system, trans and gender nonconforming bodies are treated like an affront to other people’s safety. In this system, women are left bruised and bleeding behind dumpsters, while the safety of white boys is protected.”

Fernando Gonzale, representing YPI (Youth Pride RI), said that the attack in Orlando compelled him to put aside his shyness and speak to the large crowd. Gonzale, a 17 year old gay Latino, said, “Unfortunately this week stopped being about marriage and rights and it turned into being about being a life and death situation, about survival.”

Both Governor Gina Raimondo and Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza called for a ban on assault rifles. Jennifer Smith Boylan, of Moms Demand Action, talked of the seeming futility of passing common sense gun legislation at the State House, where Speaker Nicholas Mattiello simply allows bills to die. State Senators Donna Nesselbush and Josh Miller left the State House while in session to join the rally, the only two General Assembly members to do so. It became clear that if Rhode wants to do something about gun violence, we’ll need a new legislature.

Below, please video and pictures of all the speakers at the memorial.

June 10, 2016

Speaker explains reasoning behind Youth Pride RI funding cuts

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Many worthwhile organizations doing important work found out that they had lost their grants when the budget was unveiled. Among those is Youth Pride Inc. (YPI). Having lost their Community Service Grant, the group now faces a $50 thousand shortfall. YPI is the only group in Rhode Island that specifically serves the needs of LGBTQ youth in the state.

YPI has sent an email to supporters, asking them to contact their legislators in the hope of having these funds restored.

We are asking our supporters to let the state know how valuable and important Youth Pride Inc.’s work with LGBTQQ youth is to our state and community. Let them know we are the only organization providing support and advocacy for LGBTQ youth in the state! Let them know that these youth need our organization!

“Please reach out to the Speaker of the House and Senate President immediately in support of YPI and the vital work that we do for LGBTQQ youth in Rhode Island TODAY. The Senate President can be contacted at: 401-222-6655 and the Speaker of the House can be reached at: 401-222-2466. Please reach out to your Representative as well.”

At yesterday’s House Budget briefing, I asked Speaker Nicholas Mattiello about the cuts to the program. He said that YPI serves a “very worthwhile purpose” but added, “Those services, needs, potentially are being serviced elsewhere.”

In the case of YPI, the Speaker said that he had heard the suggestion that, “guidance counselors in the school are in fact providing [these services]. Not specifically [for LGBTQ youth] but it’s something that is being addressed through other means.”

Given the range of services and programs YPI provides that specifically cater to the needs of LGBTQ youth in Rhode Island, it’s unlikely that guidance counselors are filling that need or have the time and ability to do so. That said, Mattiello, added towards the end of his statements, “We’ll take a look at [YPI] and we’ll see if it’s unique enough to fund.”

Representative Joseph Almeida entered the Budget Briefing late and asked about other worthwhile groups that have been denied funding, including the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) which has provided employment training and placement opportunities since 2010 and the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence which works to reduce homicides and support victims of violence.

“It’s like all the poor people got cut, cut, cut,” said Almeida, who said afterwards that he was speaking from his heart, “Can’t you take money from Crossroads and give to people who really need it teaching peace in the streets and teaching people how to get jobs? I mean Crossraods? What? What do they do?”

Crossroads RI received $300,000 in the budget.