This Commission Will Make a Difference

Yesterday I attended my first meeting of the Maine Children's Cabinet LGBTQ Youth Commission. What an inspiring day!

The Maine Children's Cabinet believes that all youth and young adults should be able to participate in their schools and communities without concern for discriminatory actions, harassment, and/or violence, because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Cabinet believes that all Maine citizens should appreciate individual differences and ensure that Maine communities are free from any discrimination, harassment and violence, based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The LGBTQ Youth Commission is to recommend practical, actionable strategies to reduce and eliminate anti-LGBTQ discrimination, harassment and violence that can be implemented by individuals and systems in Maine that interact with children, youth, and young adults. Witnessing this group of passionate, highly accomplished LGBT leaders and allies sharing deep insights and important research, I have no doubt that the Commission will succeed in this vital charge!

Please read more about the history and mission of the Maine Children’s Cabinet and its partner organizations.

Do you have any Best Practices for forging safe space for LGBTQ youth? Share them with us by posting a response to this blog!

Pediatricians Get New Guidelines for Spotting Suicide Signs In Gay Teens

This from a 365gay.com article: "The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued new guidelines for helping doctors identify potential signs of suicide among teenagers.

Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for adolescents 15 to 19 years olds the Academy says in its updated guidelines, published in the journal Pediatrics."

Read the full article here

Happy Coming Out Day!

Today is October 11th: National Coming Out Day!
Ugly Ducklings lovingly encourages everyone to

Come out...
Support someone who is...
Live your life in celebration of your whole person!!!

Click here to learn more about National Coming Out Day from the Human Rights Campaign.

October is LGBT History Month

They were gay?!
Yes, we know Ellen DeGeneres is gay, but did you know Bessie Smith was gay? Or, the father of computer science, Alan Turing? How about Bayard Rustin, close colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and chief organizer of the 1963 civil rights march on Washington?

I invite you to join Equality Forum in celebrating LGBT History Month by sharing the legacy of 31 LGBT leaders with the young people in your life. Each day in October, glbthistorymonth.com will highlight the life and work of a different LGBT icon. The nominees comprise individuals, living or dead, who have distinguished themselves within their fields of endeavor, as national heroes, or in the LGBT civil rights movement. Learn about today’s featured icon below, and then click here to meet this year’s 30 other featured leaders.

Learn, Love & Live your Legacy
It is so important for young people to celebrate who they are and the communities they are a part of. Our LGBT youth come from a rich and diverse legacy of revolutionary politicians, scientists, writers, activists, and artists. Celebrate the contributions of today and yesterday, while fostering the greatness of tomorrow, by sharing the stories of LGBT leaders with the young people in your life.

Wishing you an inspiring and life-affirming LGBT History Month from all of us at Ugly Ducklings!

Raise Your Allied Voice

Whose Voice?
I have spent a lot of time thinking about my role as a straight woman who will be posting regularly on the Ugly Ducklings blog, a blog dedicated to ending the bullying and harassment of LGBTQ youth. For several weeks, I felt like an impostor. “Who am I to be writing about LGBTQ issues?” I thought.

Whose Silence?
My perspective fundamentally changed, however, when I came across a prayer last week which asks forgiveness for all the times, “We knew that others were being mistreated and yet we did nothing.” My thoughts leaped immediately to a conversation I had with a friend in 10th grade chorus. We were sitting next to each other trying to guess who the other person had a crush on, and I remember clearly the moment her answers eliminated all the boys in the room. I also remember the moment I chose not to acknowledge that she was attracted to a girl. Instead of asking excitedly, “Do you like Kelly?” I feigned confusion. I pretended that I could not figure out who she was talking about. Now with great sorrow I ask myself, what was I so afraid of? Several of the women I grew up loving and being nurtured by were lesbians, and yet when presented with the opportunity to be an active ally to a peer of my own, I did not have the courage to break out of the dominant mold of heteronormativity.

Whose Problem?
I often point out that men’s violence against women is almost always referred to as a women’s problem, but it is, in fact, a men’s problem. It is the batterers who have the problem. They are the ones whose actions are harming others. In the same way, homophobic bullying and harassment is not a homosexual problem. It is a heterosexual problem. By choosing to be silent in high school I supported homophobia, just as a man supports domestic violence when he witnesses abuse and turns his head away. It is the responsibility of every individual, not only to eliminate her own homophobic thoughts and behaviors, but also to actively challenge all homophobia that is witnessed.

I cannot go back and speak out, but I can refuse to go forward in silence.


Want to know more about being an Ally?
Check out the LGBTQ Center at UNC Chapel Hill’s website

Looking for support?
The Ugly Ducklings Community Action Kit contains activities, discussion questions, movie clips, and resources for creating safer, harassment-free schools and communities!

The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network has a wealth of information, resources, and project ideas to help your school be a safe place for LGBTQ youth.

Recent Reviews

On viewing the Ugly Ducklings documentary at NEWfest in NYC, Robin Lichtig said,

"Okay - this was exciting. I just got back from a New York City screening of UGLY DUCKLINGS, based on and woven around lister Carolyn Gage's play of the same name. Big AMC-Lowe's movie house on Broadway. Darned big audience for a Friday afternoon. Met the director, a producer, others involved with the film. Lively Q and A followed.

"The film (and play) concerns the dreadful, daily pressures that LGBTQ (Q for "questioning") teens and young women are subjected to. It is an important film. Info, study resources and a CD are available from www.UglyDucklings.org or info@uglyducklings.org. Check it out if you know someone in a school, church, or other organization that would be interested in helping their young people cope with discrimination, identity, homophobia, harassment. I picked up information to send to a pastor of a church in Vermont. The more widely this film is distributed, the more
chance there is of helping these children who all too often are driven to extremes, including suicide. Cheers, Carolyn! You're making a difference."

From Diane Elze, Ph.D., an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work, University at Buffalo. Diane is also founder of OUTRIGHT in Portland, Maine and former board member of the Maine Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance (now, Equality Maine).

"This documentary is right now the best film on the planet that confronts us with the painful intrapersonal and interpersonal effects on all young people of the pervasive sexual prejudice that we teach them, and the resultant harassment and bullying, and it does so with power and sensitivity.

"These young women inspire us to join with them as change agents to actively engage with youth and adults to create safe and respectful environments in which everyone can thrive. The young participants are truly role models in showing us how to carry on meaningful, authentic conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity diversity. Most importantly, they show us how to take action despite our nervousness, uncertainty or fear.

"Hardy Girls Healthy Women has provided us with a brilliant film and an information-rich, user-friendly action kit that we can employ with youth in very diverse settings – schools, youth groups, faith communities, shelters, and other residential programs. Who could ask for more? We just need to take the risk to engage with young people around this material. And the young women in the film bravely and proudly show us how to do that, too!"

Ugly Ducklings Makes Its Debut in the Big Apple!

Hardy Girls' smash-hit documentary Ugly Ducklings will make it's New York debut on June 8th at NewFest - the 19th New York Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender Film Festival.

Ugly Ducklings will screen at AMC Loews 34th St Theater 10 at 5:45 on Friday June 8th. Tickets are $13 and documentary film director Fawn Yacker will attend the event to introduce the film and answer questions about the project!

For more info on the festival, visit www.newfest.org or email Jess at info@uglyducklings.org. If you're in the area - come out and see the film that's been called "one of the best docs on queer youth" by the Frameline 30 festival programmer!