Guest blogger Sid has more background on The Queer Youth Mutiny:
queer youth mutiny – a participatory un-coup
by Sid P.Seattle has a long, awesome, and relatively undocumented history of queer youth organizing. For decades, queer young people have been training their educators, self-publishing zines and resource materials, advocating for policy change, organizing arts and social events, and creating communities and support networks. Some of this work has happened under the rubric of organizations like the Seattle Young People’s Project; yet much more queer organizing has been entirely self-organized and grassroots.
Seattle has also been a thought leader in terms of more adult-led LGBT youth education, services, and programs. Safe Schools Coalition was launched in the late ‘80s and went on to produce, among other things, groundbreaking reports on LGBT youth experiences with harassment and violence. The Association of Gay and Lesbian Youth Advocates (AGLYA) also formed in the late ‘80s and eventually opened the Lambert House as the first LGBT youth drop-in center of its kind. From the AFSC’s Speakers’ Bureau to Camp Ten Trees, to GLSEN’s local chapter, to programs at organizations like NW Network, Lifelong AIDS, and Youthcare – the list of programs for LGBT youth in this city is not brief.
When the We Need Queer Youth Space campaign launched in December, many community members responded and informed the coalition about the aforementioned programs that currently exist in Seattle. Simultaneously, the staff, volunteers, and young people involved with several of these programs contacted the coalition with excitement about the campaign and offered up some of their own ideas, resources, and volunteer hours.
Queer Youth Space (QYS) currently exists as a coalition formed around a set of questions, rather than an organization formed around a mission. Its actions are open and participatory. It’s so transparent in fact, that once you read this article, or join the Facebook group, or visit queeryouthspace.org- you are basically in the loop of the organizing effort.
Those of us that kick-started the QYS coalition hypothesized (or dare I say, visibly recognized) that despite the existence of some incredible programs for LGBT youth in Seattle, there remains an unfulfilled opportunity to create a model with young people at the heart of its leadership. It is the very strength of Seattle’s community-based organizers that makes the potential of realizing this opportunity both a contagious idea and a concrete possibility.
By embracing an expansive view of queer that seeks to involve all people interested in eliminating heterosexism and by intentionally disrupting adult/youth power dynamics, the potential of QYS is decisively different from existing programs in Seattle. With ties to established local and national organizations, the coalition has the expertise and the community strength to build a collaborative, financially efficient, programmatically relevant, groundbreaking model.
On February 20th, 2010, a queer youth mutiny (essentially a forum) is planned to bring together constituents (i.e. queer young people). The event is intended to raise collective questions about the meaning of “queer youth space” in terms of what Seattle currently offers and what could be created or improved. While the event certainly aims to respond to policies and programs that fail to integrate youth leadership, the spirit of the mutiny (rebellion), is not a coup (takeover). It is resolutely created with participatory energy aimed at invigorating the spirit of Seattle’s queer youth organizing history and culture.
As an adult coalition member, with roots as a Seattle queer youth activist, I am calling to all supporters of youth-led organizing. And, in the spirit of QYS, I’ll posit a broad question: how can we boldly move forward as Seattle thought leaders to capture this opportunity?
You will find their Facebook event here.
