Promoting Well Being for LGBT Youth at Univ. at Albany

TheSOGIProject The Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Project at the University at Albany School of Social Welfare Presents   Promoting Well-being for LGBT Youth

Friday, November 16th, 2012 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM   SUNY Albany, Downtown Campus Husted Amphitheater 106A    The Critical Role of Families in Reducing Risk for Suicide & Other Health Problems with Caitlin Ryan, PhD, ACSW, Director, Family Acceptance Project, SF State University   This workshop will present compelling new research on LGBT youth and families from the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University on the dramatic influence families have on their LGBT children's health, mental health and well-being. Family acceptance protects against risk and helps promote well-being, while family rejection is related to serious health and mental health concerns including depression, suicidality, substance abuse and STDs. Dr. Ryan will discuss key findings and an evidence-based family intervention model to help ethnically and religiously diverse families support their LGBT children. Revolutionary and paradigm-changing, this work is changing how LGBT youth are served across multiple domains and systems of care.        Caitlin Ryan, PhD, ACSW is a clinical social worker who has worked on LGBT health and mental health for nearly 40 years. She is the Director of the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University. Dr. Ryan received the American Psychological Association, Division 44 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association Achievement Award for groundbreaking research on LGBT youth and families. Her family education publications have been designated as the first "Best Practice" resources for suicide prevention for LGBT people by the national Best Practices Registry for Suicide Prevention. Dr. Ryan has trained more than 30,000 providers, clergy, families and youth on her research and evidence-based family approach across the U.S., Mexico, Spain, Latin America and China.     $25 professionals/$10 students (scholarships available)  includes lunch and training materials   REGISTRATION:  (518) 462-6138 (Box 12) or sogi@albany.edu www.albany.edu/ssw/Academic/sogi.shtml   This workshop is made possible through the generous support of the University at Albany Diversity Transformation Fund, NYS Office of Mental Health's Suicide Prevention Initiative, the Northeast Division of NASW NYS, The Sage Colleges, Rainbow Access Initiative, and the Pride Center of the Capital Region's LGBT Mental Health Substance Abuse Network.

Reposted at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com

Independent Lens: Two Spirits

Event Starting Date: June 14, 2011 6:00 pm

Reposted at http://keystothecloset.blogspot.com.

Two Spirits interweaves the tragic story of a mother’s loss of her son with a revealing look at the largely unknown history of a time when the world wasn’t simply divided into male and female and many Native American cultures held places of honor for people of integrated genders. Powerful and moving, Lydia Nibley’s Two Spirits explores the life and death of Fred Martinez and the ancient Native American two-spirit tradition. Two Spirits will premiere on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by America Ferrera, on Tuesday, June 14, 2011 (check local listings).

Fred Martinez told his mother he felt as if he was both a boy and a girl, and she explained that this is a special gift, according to traditional Navajo culture. But the place where two discriminations meet is a dangerous place to live, and Fred became one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at sixteen. Between tradition and controversy, and freedom and fear, lies the truth—the bravest choice you can make is to be yourself.

Two Spirits explores issues of national concern including the bullying and violence commonly faced by LGBT people, and the epidemic of LGBT teen suicide, and reveals the range of gender expression that has long been seen as a healthy part of many of the indigenous cultures of North America, and of Navajo culture in particular.

Location:
To learn more about the film, and the issues involved, visit the companion website for Two Spirits at www.pbs.org/independentlens/two-spirits. Get detailed information on the film, watch preview clips, read an interview with the filmmaker, and explore the subject in depth with links and resources. The site also features a Talkback section where viewers can share their ideas and opinions.

Upcoming Free Webinar on Cyberbullying and Suicide

MARCH 29—CYBERBULLYING AND SUICIDE: What Schools Must Do to Protect Students and Districts:

This national webinar will address the true magnitude and toll of bullying and use of the Internet to taunt children all day, every day and everywhere; legal consequences for school districts and legal recourse for parents; how the anonymity that the Internet offers can cloak perpetrators’ identity and enhance the vitriol of their taunting; and what schools, parents and communities must do to keep children safe in the virtual world. The webinar is Tuesday, March 29th, 2011, from 3:00 pm-4:30 pm, EDT. This webinar is free of charge and is sponsored by the Wyoming Department of Health and Wyoming Department of Education. To register, visit https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/724520755.

Reposted at  keystothecloset.blogspot.com

TransOhio offers Youth Support Groups

COLUMBUS, OH, March 5, 2011 -- TransOhio is pleased to announce the start of support groups for Transgender, Gender non-conforming/questioning youth ages 5-11 and 12-17. Regarding the importance of these groups, board member and facilitator Erin Upchurch, MSSA, LSW states, “It is necessary that we begin to reach out and affirm our children; they need to know that they are not alone and that their gender identity and form of expression is as valid as any other.” Upchurch continues, “This is an exciting time for our youth. We are excited to facilitate affirmation and community through conversation, education, and the arts.” 

 

TransOhio Founder and Chair, Shane Morgan says that “The addition of these two groups is important to our community. There are resource gaps for Trans and gender non-conforming youth of these ages and we’re thrilled to be able to offer a few new opportunities to youth and their parents.”

 

Groups begin in April 2011 for $10/session-a sliding fee scale is available. Groups will meet in Columbus. As need for these groups grow, we’ll start other youth groups across the state of Ohio. Youth will meet within their appropriate age group and parental/guardian consent will be required. Please contact Erin Upchurch with questions at erin@transohio.org. 

 

TransOhio serves the Ohio transgender and ally communities by providing services, education, support and advocacy which promotes and improves the health, safety and life experience of the Ohio transgender individual and community.

 

For more information contact:  Shane Morgan, shane@transohio.org , 614-441-8167, http://www.transohio.org/

Gays Targeted for Hate Crimes

SPLC’s Intelligence Report: Gays Targeted for Hate Crimes Far More Than Any Other Minority in America

Homosexuals are far more likely to be victims of a violent hate crime than any other minority group in the United States, according to a new analysis of federal hate crime statistics in the latest issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report, released today.

The SPLC’s analysis of 14 years of hate crime data found that homosexuals, or those perceived to be gay, are more than twice as likely to be attacked in a violent hate crime as Jews or blacks; more than four times as likely as Muslims; and 14 times as likely as Latinos. The findings are based on FBI hate crime statistics from 1995 to 2008, the period for which there is complete data. The basic pattern also holds true in individual years.

Winter 2010 issue of the SPLC's Intelligence Report

The analysis is being released to coincide with the scheduled release of the FBI’s hate crime statistics for 2009.
These findings come as a wave of anti-gay attacks have washed across the country. In New York, for example, 10 suspects were arrested for brutally torturing three gay victims. And in Covington, Ky., a neighborhood was hit by a series of violent anti-gay attacks. Most dramatically, four teenagers committed suicide in September after being bullied, taunted or outed as homosexuals.

This analysis of hate crime data can be found in the Winter 2010 issue of the Intelligence Report, which also explores how the hard-core anti-gay movement in America is becoming more extreme in the face of gay rights advances.
“As Americans become more accepting of homosexuals, the most extreme elements of the anti-gay movement are digging in their heels and continuing to defame gays and lesbians with falsehoods that grow more incendiary by the day,” said Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report. “The leaders of this movement may deny it, but it seems clear that their demonization of homosexuals plays a role in fomenting the violence, hatred and bullying we’re seeing.”