I feel Very Passionate About Being a Youth Activist
By Lauren, Campus Organizer, Advocates for Youth
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I was born in Geneva, New York and have lived in Waterloo, NY; Bloomington, Indiana; and Liverpool, NY. Most recently I moved to Albany, New York to attend college. I am a freshman with an intended major in Sociology and a minor in Women's Studies. I hope to complete my Masters in Social Work over the next five years. I am fairly new at comprehensive sex education activism, but have been involved in queer youth activism and anti-drug advocacy for five years.
In addition to my work with Advocates for Youth, I am a member of on-campus Pride Alliance and am a co-founder and member of the Syracuse LGBTQ Youth Center. In high school I was president of my school’s Gay/Straight Alliance for three years, a member and co-founder of our Students Against Destructive Decisions group, and an active member in National Honors Society, Jenna's Mentors, and Elementary Mentors. I have been on the planning board and a guest speaker for the Syracuse University Breaking the Silence: Loud and Proud Rally twice. At the Syracuse LGBTQ Youth Center I was an organizer for the first annual Youth Pride Party and a lecturer for A Brief History of the American LGBT Rights Movement: 1950-2000. I spoke as a community leader for the Central New York Rally in protest of the decision by the New York State Court of Appeals decision opposing the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York State.
What really got me interested in the Youth Activists Network are my strong feelings about comprehensive sex ed being taught in schools. As a member of the queer community I felt frustrated by the lack of visibility and information afforded to queer people in a typical high school sex ed class. I feel very passionate about being a Youth Activist and am looking forward to all of the advocacy events over the next year to make the REAL Act a law.
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