Our youth needs more safe spaces to be able to be themselves and take pride in who they are. Bullying and harassment can surge when election cycles ramp up “gaybaiting” tactics like we’ve seen in San Diego recently, and when anti-LGBTQ bills are introduced and reported on by the media, like the bill seeking to criminalize drag queens reading books to children in Missouri. When media outlets take time to disparage our community, those sentiments are parroted back to our youth by family, friends at school, faculty, and institutions of faith - so much so that more than 70% of all LGBTQ youth report being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. We hear far too many in our community talk about how “easy kids have it these days,” but the reality is that the hyper-polarized political climate our country is experiencing affects our youngest as well.
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