Wilmington Friends School is all about acceptance, said Hareena Houston. However, the 17-year-old wanted to show LGBT students outside of her Delaware-based Quaker school that same acceptance.
“I know a lot of students from a lot of high schools around Wilmington and I recently found out that they can’t bring same-sex people as their dates to their proms,” Houston said. “I was like, ‘It’s 2017. Why not?’”
Houston, along with co-chair Evie Kortanek, organized a county-wide LGBT-inclusive dance for students in May. This effort included coordinating fundraisers, contacting sponsors and reaching out to other schools in the area.
“It was their first time at a dance where they could bring somebody without feeling uncomfortable, which is exactly what we wanted it to do,” Houston said, noting that more than 60 students attended. “They were very happy.”
Director of College Guidance Kathleen Martin is the advisor for the school’s Gender Sexuality Alliance, where Houston will serve as clerk in the fall. Martin received notice about the TD Bank Young Heroes Award and nominated Houston for the honor due to her ability to “overcome tremendous obstacles and yet still [make] our world such an amazingly better place.”
Martin said she was thrilled to find out that Houston will be among 21 students, chosen among 74 national nominees, receiving the award Aug. 10. Martin noted Houston’s growth despite challenges. This included living with abusive, drug-addicted parents and homelessness through age 5, when her grandparents sued for custody of Houston and her siblings.
“She has grown tremendously in strength,” Martin said. “There was a time when she was really depressed and it was a little hard and life wasn’t looking so cheery. She got beyond that to not only succeed and be a happy person, but to help others.”
While Houston said she is not legally allowed to see her father until she turns 18, she currently has a good relationship with her mother and is very proud of her. She recalled her grandparents’ impact on her, noting that her grandmother was a teacher for inner-city students and that her grandfather had an accepting personality while working in the military.
“We grew up in a very kind environment,” Houston said.
Despite this, Houston still navigated PTSD and depression. She noted her two-week treatment at a mental-health facility last year where she met a number of highly supportive people
“I got to see them and I got to see myself learn and over the year, I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t want to just be defined by my mental illnesses. I want to help other people who don’t want to be defined just by one thing,’” she said.
“I think as I grew up, I also got a sense of humanity in everybody because I did grow up with a violent childhood,” Houston said. “I had to understand that everyone was human. I think that also really helped with me being able to identify with people who might not be treated as such.”
In addition to organizing the dance and leading the Gender Sexuality Alliance, Houston participates in other activities encouraging diversity. These include Amnesty International, Delaware’s Ulster Project, Diversity Club and the feminist organization Half the Sky.
While she said it feels “really cool” to be recognized for her work with the TD Bank Young Heroes Award, Houston is mostly hoping it will bring attention to the LGBT dance. Additionally, she said she is looking forward to possible collaborations with the other winners.
“I’m really excited to meet the other people who were nominated because they have obviously done something absolutely amazing and I want to see what we can do together,” she said. “Two people is way better than just one person.”
Looking further into the future, Houston said she wants to be a defense lawyer for prisoners on death row. She noted how visiting her mother in prison helped shape her views.
“I grew up in a different type of household so I got a whole other perspective on some people who have been in jail and I know that they are way more than just an inmate,” Houston said. “Some of the people on death row shouldn’t be there because they either were kids when [their crime] happened; they were kids with a mental illness that wasn’t brought up in court; [or] they were wrongly convicted because of their race.”
Martin described her own vision for Houston.
“She has a huge heart,” she said. “She wants to make the world a better place and she might actually do it because not only does she have a huge heart, she’s indomitable. She will not be stopped. She is a little relentless in the best way. [When] somebody tells her ‘No,’ she just keeps asking. I think we need more young activists like that.”