Continue reading »]]> Our guest this month was Jason Phillips, a singer and songwriter as well as a student from the University of California at Davis.  Jason talked about how he discovered his love for music and the stage.  He performed two songs live for us during the show.

Jason, originally from the Bay Area, is currently studying psychology at U.C. Davis. Since he was a toddler, the world has been his stage as he took every opportunity to perform for anyone that would watch. Whether it was a thanksgiving dinner or a talent show, Jason was always singing or dancing and having a good time. Since then, he’s performed musical theater and song all over the Bay Area in productions ranging from community theater to professional performances. One of his biggest passions is recording music. Jason has a home recording studio where he produces songs for his YouTube channel. Jason currently sings at a piano bar in Sacramento every week. After college, Jason plans on living in NY to pursue a career in performance.

Jason is a wonderfully talented and bright young man with a very promising future.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byZ0vYjRlSc

Learn More

Jason Phillips’ Youtube Channel

Listen to this edition of Outbeat Youth here.

Continue reading »]]> We start this month talking with Connor Norton who we met this month in Denver, Colorado, where he received the Spirit of Matthew Award from the Matthew Shepard Foundation for his LGBT activism work.  He is an impressive young man.  Here is the video of Connor’s award presentation.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKLGVE23Y6k

Connor will be joining us here on Outbeat Youth early next year.

This month we continue with our Campus Pride National Voices In Action Spotlight series featuring a discussion with Anna Aagenes (Executive Director of “Go! Athletes”, Former NCAA Track/Cross-Country Captain)  During her time at the University of Pennsylvania, Anna Aagenes was a track star and openly LGBT student leader. In addition to serving as the captain of the track and field and cross country teams, she was chair of Penn Athletes and Allies Tackling Homophobia and Heterosexism (PATH). Since graduating in 2010, she has continued to advocate on behalf of LGBT athletes as the Executive Director of Our Group Athletes, an outreach, support, educational, advocacy and leadership organization for LGBT student-athletes and allies. Our Group serves to connect LGBT student-athletes with other LGBT student-athletes and find supportive resources.

Learn More

Matthew Shepard Foundation
Go! Athletes
Campus Pride

You can listen to this edition of Outbeat Youth here

Continue reading »]]> We are on location at the Performing Arts Center at Napa Valley College this month talking to student cast members of The Laramie Project Ten Years Later.  Napa Valley College is the first college in California to produce this new play, an epilogue to the infamous The Laramie Project produced in 1998 by the Tectonic Theater Project following the vicious murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming.

Play director, Professor Jennifer King, told us about the close connection Napa Valley College has with Judy Shepard and the Laramie Project Play.  In fact, the college produced the original play in 2002 and hosted Judy Shepard for a reading in 2008.  While many of the cast members were too young to remember what happened in 1998, they have discovered the tragedy of this story through their research and experience acting in this new play.

We talked to the cast about their hopes for how the play will impact the community and what has motivated them to be involved.  They are an amazing group and the play is something simply not to be missed.

You can listen to this edition of Outbeat Youth here

Continue reading »]]> This month we explored the intersections of Christianity and sexuality.  Often, religion and sexual orientation collide, but as we discovered, there is a wide range of acceptance of non-heterosexuality among the different faiths that claim to be Christian.  Michael Braggiotti is a 21-year old college student who recently concluded studying to be a Baptist minister at Samford University in Alabama.  Michael shared his story growing up in a religious household and how he navigated through the anti-homosexual messages he heard finally coming out as a gay man.  He gave us an amazing explanation of the difference between Evangelical, Pentecostals, and the more traditional Christian faiths.

Spirituality in general can be a very positive aspects of anyone’s life.  All to often LGBT members of a church find themselves in conflict with the teaching of a faith they grew up with and their own sexual identity.  There are many affirming churches and faiths that welcome LGBT people.  Michael is a great example of a young man who was able to reconcile his faith with his own identity.

Learn More

Email Mike Braggiotti
Samford University

You can listen to this edition of Outbeat Youth here

Continue reading »]]> This month we launched the first in a special series of shows for this school year we are calling the “Campus Pride National Voices In Action Spotlight Series!”  We are working with our colleagues at Campus Pride to bring you a series of special guests and celebrities to talk about a variety of issues facing LGBT students and staff at colleges and universities across the country.  On tonight’s show, Shane Windmeyer, the executive director of Campus Pride, talks about how LGBT freshman can prepare for their first day at a new college. Shane gives freshman advice on how LGBT students should manage their roommate situations, how they can find LGBT organizations on campus, and how to use the Campus Climate Index, which is an amazing resource for current and prospective college students.  Shane talks about how colleges are starting to pay more attention to the needs of transgender students and some of the risks associated with going to a private college as opposed to a public school as an LGBT student.  We also talked to Shane about this year’s Camp Pride, which took place in Nashville and where LGBT students learned some valuable leadership skills to take back to their campuses this school year.

The Campus Pride National Voices In Action Spotlight Series will air during regular Outbeat Youth segments about every other month this coming school year.  We will feature stores about LGBT issues in college athletics, combating homophobia, the importance of marriage equality, and much more.  Stay tuned to our website for an up to date schedule of shows and the celebrities who will take part in this exciting series.

Learn More

Campus Pride
Campus Climate Index

You can listen to this edition of Outbeat Youth here.

Continue reading »]]> Happy Pride!  It was pride weekend here in the San Francisco Bay Area and we were out enjoying it all.  As is tradition here on Outbeat Radio, tonight’s show is a special about pride and this year we focused on the LGBT civil rights movement for the entire hour.  The show begins with a look back at the history of pride and some of the major moments in the fight for LGBT civil rights.  We look at the history of the rainbow flag and hear from its creator, Gilbert Baker.  The second half of the show includes several segments from the new Christopher Hines documentary, “Legalize Gay,” that premiered in May of this year.   This documentary highlights several straight allies, like Hudson Taylor and Ben Cohen, who are speaking out in support of equality for LGBT people.

If you are having trouble finding a reason to have pride this year, this show is exactly what you need to discover why you should be proud every day of the year.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rx-SjnRf-c

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u62OtM_vt5k

 Learn More

Legalize Gay Documentary

You can listen to this edition of Outbeat Youth here

Continue reading »]]> May is national law enforcement appreciation month, so we decided to take a look at how police academy students are being trained to better understand and serve the LGBT community.  We invited cadets Beth Ingram, Billy Carpenter, and Anthony Morgado to join us on the air to talk about their experience as a student in Napa Valley College’s police academy.   They talked about the cross cultural research project that all students are required to complete.  These three cadets chose the LGBT community for their projects.  Billy and Beth told us about their trip to the Castro and how it was meeting LGBT police officers for a face to face interview.  After completing the project, they returned to the academy to teach their colleagues how to best serve the LGBT community.  What they weren’t expecting during these presentations was for Anthony to come out to the entire class as a gay man.  Anthony told us that he always knew he was gay, but came out for the first time during the police academy.  After telling his parents and close friends, he decided to share his experience with the class.  For that, he received a standing ovation!

Things are changing quickly in law enforcement and LGBT young people who have always dreamed of a career in law enforcement can certainly realize one while being “out.”  There are even scholarships available for “out” LGBT students who are enrolled in a basic law enforcement training program.  In fact, Anthony was selected after a nation wide search to receive one of those scholarships.

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Napa Valley Police Academy
Out To Protect Scholarship Program

You can listen to this edition of Outbeat Youth here.

Continue reading »]]> This month Positive Images co-directors Jim Foster and Nancy Vogl stopped by with Molly, Michael, Jaime, and Jackie to talk the latest happenings at Sonoma County’s premier LGBT youth organization. Positive Images has been serving LGBT youth in Sonoma County for over 20 years by providing a weekly support meeting and a variety of social events.  Jaime talked about how Positive Images helped him come out as a Latino man who happens to be gay.  One of the big events coming up for Positive Images is the “Hella Gay Prom” on Saturday, April 28, 2012.  Tickets are now available on the Positive Images Facebook page or at the door.  Positive Images will be well represented this year at Sonoma County Pride on June 3, 2012 including a special event happening the night before at the Margaret Cho show being held at the Wells Fargo Center.  For more information, visit the Positive Images website using the link below.

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Positive Images
Positive Images Facebook Page 

You can listen to this edition of Outbeat Youth here.

Continue reading »]]> This month we spent the entire hour talking about LGBT youth suicide and heard from the Trevor Project and It Gets Better Project.  We began by looking back at some of the stories from the news, but recognized that these are but a few of the young people who have taken their own lives.  Phoenix Schneider from the Trevor Project told us about how the Trevor Project came about and shared some good information about how to recognize if someone might be suicidal and how to talk with that person in a supportive way.  The Trevor Project is the nations only 24-hour hotline supporting LGBT youth in crisis.  They have call centers located around the country that are staff by highly trained volunteers.  There is even a call center here in the Bay Area located in the HRC Store in San Francisco’s Castro District.

Many celebrities and public officials have come out in support of LGBT Youth, but Dan Savage is someone who has done even more.  Dan created the It Gets Better Project.  He joined us on the air to talk about how this Internet phenomenon came to be and where it is headed.  Dan has been an outspoken advocate of LGBT Youth and is dedicated much of the funding coming in from the It Gets Better Project to support allied organizations including the Trevor Project.  Dan shared with us some of his favorite of the over 40,000 videos created for the project so far.  He also talked about the It Gets Better book and recent TV special that aired on MTV and the Logo channel.  Dan continues to work with many different organizations such as Campus Pride and the ACLU.

Here are a few of the videos we highlighted and spoke about during the show.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeKI8biAglU

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RMunYfzlGs

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfWw4obqefM

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XZRNL9ZnyM

Learn More

The Trevor Project
It Gets Better Project

Listen to this edition of Outbeat Youth here.

Continue reading »]]> This month we got caught up with Jason Galisatus, who is now a freshman at Stanford University.  Jason is also the executive director of the Bay Area Youth Summit.  He talked with us about life as an LGBT activist at Stanford and how much he is loving college.  Jason has an awesome roommate in the residence hall and told us that Stanford is a very welcoming place for LGBT students.

We also met Ian Stanley, who is the director of the Napa LGBTQ Project, and Brodie Azevedo, who is the director of their youth programs.  Ian has done a great deal of work bringing together the LGBT community in the Napa Valley. He shared with us his experience hosting the very LGBT community forum in Napa with over 200 participants.  Brodie told us about the work he is doing to support the GSA organizations in Napa area high schools and even one middle school.  Napa LGBTQ youth are invited to attend the bi-monthly Q-Youth meetings for activities and networking.  The Napa LGBTQ Project hopes to create some day an LGBT center.

Learn More

Jason Galisatus Youtube Channel
Bay Area Youth Summit
Napa LGBTQ Project 

Listen to this edition of Outbeat Youth here.