One year ago, PGN launched its inaugural LGBTQ Youth Supplement, and it returns this week for its fifth incarnation. We at PGN have been overwhelmed by how much we’ve learned from this project — and hope the same can be said of our readers and, most importantly, our youth contributors and readers.
The mission of the supplement is to give a voice to our LGBTQ youth; while the issues affecting this community have gradually been coming to the forefront of community discussions in the past few years, we acknowledge that it is our youth themselves who best understand what they’re facing in our schools, on our streets and in their homes. We put out the call to high-school- and college-aged youth from around the region; no writing experience was required, just a passion for LGBTQ issues.
And the passion from our youth writers has been impressive. Each quarter, PGN follows up with the contributors to brainstorm for individual story assignments, offering to suggest topics; but, we’ve found that most of the writers have already come up with their own story pitch, and enthusiastically detail the plan they’ve devised to tackle the topic. By employing a rather open-ended story-selection process, we’ve found the writers feel freer to explore their own experiences and interests and, thus, produce passionate and engaging pieces.
While many of the writers cautioned us that they didn’t have formal journalism experience, we have been amazed by the quality of their writing. From opinion pieces to arts reviews to news coverage to works of creative writing, the submissions illustrate both writing mastery and a significant willingness to invest hard work in their writing. The youth have been eager to make their own edits and have often suggested revisions without prompting, demonstrating how much pride they take in their work.
The diversity of the topics they’re eager to explore has also been enlightening. Often, the most talked-about issue when it comes to LGBTQ youth is bullying, but our youth writers have proposed topics that go far beyond school safety. They have addressed such topics as the effect of a religious upbringing on coming out, the factors that put LGBTQ youth at higher risk for prison, evolving labels regarding sexual identity and how a condition like Asperger’s Syndrome affects community involvement. Our youth contributors have opened our eyes to the depth and breadth of what it means to be a young LGBTQ person today.
We at PGN are thrilled to have the platform to showcase the voices that deserve to be part of our community discourse. The Youth Supplement has showed us just how vital younger members of our community are to our future: They have passion, promise and potential — and we have a lot to learn from them.