Transcriber: Jen Yu Tseng Reviewer: Denise RQ
Hello.
The eminent English writer, John Donne once said that,
" No man is an island entire of itself."
We all, as humans, have a need to come together, to coalesce
for the sake of mutual survival and self betterment.
We've learned a lot today about the many ways
in which communities are created, are cultivated, and contrived,
and we might have many ideas in our minds of what communities look like.
There are the sprawling city centers
where thousands if not millions of people come together to share their resources,
trade their goods and services.
There are the small tiny communities, the villages that are in the countryside
while divorced from the rest of civilization
all the same come together
and share their talents, their abilities for the sake of mutual survival.
More contemporaneously,
we might think of the sprawling suburbia, where thousands of houses,
all made of ticky-tacky, all looking just the same
(Laughter)
are coupled altogether and constitute their own new communities.
But there has been a dimension, a new medium,
a Fourth Estate, if you will, of communities
that hasn't yet been discussed today at this conference,
and that is the potential of the Internet, online.
We take for granted so often, it's so ubiquitous the Internet,
that's its the place for us, a medium of exchange
to buy those hot pair of shoes or to go on a date with a random stranger
or, if you're like me, a drama junkie,
can tune in and binge watch the latest season of "House of Cards."
If you play your cards right, you should have it done
by the end of the day, it's that enthralling.
But. If you're gay, like me, an LGBT person,
it can be difficult, if not impossible
to find those communities to connect with
that can bring people together and share with a shared identity.
It is because of this
that we have the Queer Nebraska Youth Network
to thank for our organization and for our people
as a queer community to come together.
There is a survey done
by the Midlands Sexual Health Research Collaborative
several years ago,
which found that over 1,000 people who were surveyed,
the majority of them had seen
there was a need for an LGBT organization for the benefit of our community
- Pardon me -
and a majority of them still also recognize that in Nebraska
- in a very rural and conservative state -
there aren't these organizations
which can help support the members of the LGBT community.
So it was in this respect that five years ago,
our dear friend Drew Heckman founded the Queer Nebraska Youth Network
- the topic, the center of our discussion today -
and I can tell by the look on some of your faces,
what's probably going through your mind.
"He said queer. Oh, dear!"
(Laughter)
The word 'queer' that had been used to systematically undermine and vilify
members of the LGBT community over the decades.
That word, I can happily tell you, has been retooled.
It's been readopted, it's been reclaimed by the LGBT community
as a more holistic and optimally inclusive term for our community.
The alphabet soup of L, G, B, T, Q, Q, I, A
has been poured so effortlessly into a gorgeous, fabulous "queer" bowl;
an umbrella term by which we can all coalesce and congregate.
You're probably wondering
what is the Queer Nebraska Youth Network, the QNYN?
What do we do?
We are a peer-led LGBT Youth Organization
that serves the Queer Youth of Nebraska age 14 to 24.
We are, I can happily tell you, the only peer-led LGBT Youth organization
of its kind in the country.
(Applause)
We started life very humbly.
Our first event I can recall
- old photos of our first social event back in June 2010 -
it was a pool party.
Twelve young gay and lesbian kids came together
for a day of summertime fun.
It was brilliant, it was a ideal gay day.
(Laughter)
But what is it that we do?
We provide those connections, those links
through various tenets of the organization.
We provide a confidential online discussion forum,
mediation through Facebook
through which our members can confidentially take part in discussion
learning from one another
without any of their Facebook friends even knowing.
The importance of the confidentiality and secrecy in our group ensures
that those safe and open spaces are cultivated.
We also have regular social events throughout the state,
mostly in Omaha and Lincoln.
Starting humbly from that lovely queer pool party five years ago,
we've expanded to regular events
in many categories, in many areas of the community.
We also provide those meaningful links and connections
to community resources and opportunities that our queer youth so often need.
You're probably wondering
why do queer youth need to be part of an organization
where we're all so plugged in as young people
to social media, to our devices, to the Internet,
finding our own niches either individually or as a small group.
The importance of our community is that we can we can help bring together
the young people who are so often, like Jon Donne said, 'the islands."
I was an island myself, I was isolated, I was solitudinous,
I was unable to reach out and find a community of people just like me.
Bringing together all this young motivated islands,
we are able to create a cohesive landmass
For the benefit of our thrive, our survival.
Is important, I think, to understand
What is the result, What have we done so far?
If you look at a survey we commissioned two years ago,
We found that of over 200 respondents, over a quarter of our membership,
half of our members were suffering clinical depression
when they joined the group.
Twenty-five percent were suffering serious depression.
Sixty percent of our members had contemplated suicide at least once,
and twenty-six percent had attempted suicide at least once before joining.
These statistics are not just for the sake of analysis;
they are real clear clues
as to what goes on in the queer youth community here in Nebraska.
I'm reminded of a testimonial of a young man
- one of our members who's 2 now,
but he's been a part of the QNYN since high school -
who comes from the rural, Western end of Nebraska,
from a very small town.
His coming out story, like so many others,
is unique but also filled with their own trials and tribulations.
He was not accepted by his stepfather for who he was.
His stepfather had subjected him
to regular verbal and sometimes physical abuse,
and this young man wasn't able to get the protection that he needed
because, unfortunately, his father's best friend was the town's police chief.
He was like Jon Donne said, 'an island.'
He was alone, he was unable to reach out.
But luckily, he found us at the QNYN,
and has taken part in events and in discussion groups,
and he is just one of many in our organization
who now, if you look at the same survey,
had reduced depression rates with 10% after taking part in our group.
Our members made at least one new friend within six months of joining;
and at least five new friends within two years.
These are not just any casual friendships;
these are links, these are connections, lifelong, lifesaving connections.
The interactions that our queer youth experience
being in many cases,
the only queer youth they know in their town coming together is impactful.
And to return to this young man from the West of Nebraska,
he had said that joining the QNYN was one of the greatest helps in his life.
It saved his life, he says.
It is in that spirit that we continue
to do the work and the programming throughout the state.
We have grown
from that first, small, gay pool party of twelve,
and now, have nearly 800 members
from Omaha to Scottsbluff from Norfolk to Nebraska City.
We are a statewide network of young people
who with our shared interests and our shared identities
are able to have a much greater impact than the sum of our parts.
The QNYN is divided into three subgroups:
The Queer Men subgroup, the Queer Women subgroup,
and the Transgender Queer subgroup
for our transgender and gender-non conforming friends.
Together, each group is led by a youth who identifies
with that same group and also takes part in the leadership,
in the running of our operations of the organization.
This organization has been proud
to not only offer the gender and sexual identity diversity
but also the geographic, the racial, the ethnic, the social economic diversity
in our state, and among our youth.
And it's because of this diversity
we are able to better attune ourselves to the needs of our members.
The QNYN has been a interesting project, it's been a meaningful organization.
It has grown from strength to strength.
It's through, initially, the online medium, the Internet,
the web sphere, the w-w-w dot dot dot of life.
Not only are we able to use the Internet as a medium of exchange
it is a facilitator, a connector of communities.
It is a bridge connecting so many people
who would otherwise not have those connections.
It is a link, it is bringing together those many islands
into a cohesive group, a community,
It's because of this that our members have been able to thrive,
to know who they are, to take part in a much wider effort.
That has been the continued work of the QNYN
to bring kids together deliberately in healthy, safe, open spaces.
It is empowering, it is enriching,
and it is the catalyst for so many of our members staying with us.
In that survey I mentioned earlier, 94% of members said
if they had a chance to,
they would either possibly or definitely leave Nebraska.
These are the makings of a generational brain-drain
which has typified the LGBT community in so many rural states like Nebraska.
We want our queer youth to stay in Nebraska
and make Nebraska the most diverse and welcoming state that it should be.
(Applause)
It's through this commitment that we share with our young members
the potential to interact, to survive, and to thrive;
that is the spirit of the QNYN, and that is, hopefully,
what many more of you can do to create those communities online
with a click of your fingers,
and to create all sorts of possibilities and potential for so many people.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much indeed.
(Applause)