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Welcome to the latest edition of Front and Center. This week we highlight our Foster Care Project which is making the city's foster care system far more welcoming for LGBT youth. You'll also hear how our Youth Organizing (YO!) Interns educated state legislators in Albany about the need to stop youth-directed tobacco marketing. Plus you'll hear the inspirational story of a lesbian couple's journey to parenthood and the support they received from our Center Families program. Finally, we'll recap our recent cultural program that paid tribute to the late pioneer activist Vito Russo. Please enjoy reading these stories, and thank you for your support.

Center Foster Care Project Intern Helps Transform NYC's Foster Care System

The Center’s Foster Care Project works daily to enhance the lives of LGBT young people in New York City’s Foster Care system. Our interns co-facilitate trainings and share their personal experiences with public officials at the Administration for Children’s Services to ensure that agencies treat LGBT foster youth with respect and dignity. “Jasmine” is the 21 year old adoptive mother to her two siblings. Formally a foster child herself, Jasmine connected with the Center’s Youth Enrichment Services (YES) program and found the support she needed to move forward with her life. She is now interning with our Foster Care Project where she educates a host of decision makers about the challenges she faced, and eventually overcame, as a lesbian teenager growing up in the foster care system. By sharing her experiences with foster care agencies, Jasmine is changing the lives of hundreds of LGBT kids in the foster care system for the better and helping the Center continue our tradition of supporting thousands of LGBT families throughout the year.



Center Youth Travel to Albany to Advocate Against Tobacco Marketing

Center Youth Organizing (YO!) interns joined 50 other advocates in late January; they embarked on a bus trip to Albany with a mission of educating state legislators about the importance of tobacco prevention programs. This yearly event is coordinated by the New York City Smoke Free Coalition and includes young voices from throughout New York City who meet with a host of state assembly members and senators to inform them about the need to keep robust funding for tobacco prevention programs and explain why the initiatives are so important. The coalition’s local efforts have helped contribute to a significant reduction in New York City smoking rates; NYC has the lowest smoking rates in the nation. Unfortunately tobacco companies continue to bombard young people with advertising at local convenience stores near their schools. Center youth speak out regularly about this alarming trend at community board meetings and other forums and push for measures that would limit these manipulative and harmful campaigns which have resulted in alarming statistics: 59 percent of self-identified LGBT teenagers in NYC report using tobacco, compared to 35 percent of self-identified straight teens. State legislators were very receptive to the youth tobacco prevention message and agreed to make this a priority when looking at overall state funding.

Brian Smith, the Center’s Youth Services Community Organizing Specialist said trips like this one show young people that their educational efforts truly matter:

"It's great to see the young people take all that they’ve learned inside the walls of the Center and put it into practice in the world. They realize, 'I can make a difference and my voice does count,'" Smith said.



Center Families Spotlight: Emily, Sarah and Baby Avery

My partner Sarah and I always knew that we wanted to start a family, and it was vital that we surround ourselves with a network of support. As lesbian parents, we are already faced with adversities and we knew how important it was to have all the support we could possibly get. So we did some research for LGBT parenting support groups and found Center Families. It was such a huge relief to walk into a room with women who were going through the exact same thing as us. The "Trying to Conceive" journey is mentally and physically exhausting, and just to be able to go and vent and hear stories from other people assured us that we weren't alone or going crazy. Also, it added to our excitement of starting a family because we received such encouragement and positive reinforcement from everyone in the group.

I recall a particular month during this journey; we thought that on our third try Sarah had gotten pregnant. An initial blood test had confirmed a pregnancy, but a repeat test showed that the pregnancy did not hold. We received the phone call from the doctor that we were NOT pregnant, while we were driving to the Center Families meeting. I remember saying to each other that we were really grateful that although we had just received this horrible news, we could at least go and talk to everyone who understood. We were so relieved to have our meeting that night. We truly needed the support!

We absolutely love what Center Families has done for us. We have been able to create a strong support network, and, we also feel that we are now in a position to help answer questions for anyone who is going through the same journey as us. Our daughter, Avery was born in October and this experience has been completely amazing, largely because of Center Families.




Center Highlights Late Pioneer LGBT Activist Vito Russo

In January the Center paid tribute to the late LGBT pioneer activist Vito Russo, featuring author Michael Shiavi, author of: Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo. Nearly one hundred people gathered at the Center to hear more about Russo’s enduring legacy. Russo lived at the center of the most important gay cultural turning points in the 1970s and 1980s. Schiavi’s book unravels Vito Russo's fascinating life, from his childhood in East Harlem to his death from AIDS in 1990. The Center is committed to showcasing this rich history of LGBT advocacy and conveying its relevance to today.