A Project of Long Island Crisis Center
e-Newsletter
As reported in Newsday on June 2, 2007, Liza Lomando (21), a former PFY peer educator, died in a canoeing accident over Memorial Day weekend while camping with friends in
Liza’s contributions to PFY were abundant. She was a peer educator for three years and was a Youth Facilitator for the Young Women’s Creative Arts Group, which created art work to empower young lesbian and bisexual women and combat stigma. She was also an active member of several summer programs, including the 2001 Summer Theater Camp, 2002 Summer Mural Project and 2003 Garden Project. The latter two projects are still on display at PFY’s headquarters in
Liza’s creativity, generosity, fierce activism and courage will be forever remembered by the many young people and staff members who she touched during her life.
Upcoming Events
PFY GOES CAMPING
Pride for Youth embarked on it’s 3rd annual camping trip this past month. The camping trip is a much anticipated part of PFY’s summer programming. It offers young people the chance to visit new places and have new experiences.
This year, ten PFY participants and four chaperones braved the wilds of Pine Grove, Pennsylvania during the week of July 9th through July 13th.
As in years past, the group stayed at a KOA Campground in log cabins and had the opportunity to visit local attractions. During this trip the group took a tour of the Gettysburg battleground, rode the rides at Dorney Park, went go-karting and competed in paint-ball. In addition, participants had the opportunity to hike in the woods surrounding the campground, as well as swim in the campground’s pool. A campfire was built at the end of each day. The entire group congregated around it, ate s’mores, played board games, told stories and did a lot of laughing.
On the last night of the trip each person was asked to reflect on their favorite part of the week. It was evident from what was shared that this trip meant a great deal to the participants. It gave them the opportunity to have new experiences, make new friends and strengthen their bonds with old ones.
A huge thank you goes out the following organizations who made the trip possible through their generous support:The Marsha Day Memorial Fund of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, the Nassau County Bar Association, Best Buy and the Long Island Ravens Charitable Fund.
Best Buy Employees Support PFY
In June, PFY hosted the monthly meeting of the Best Buy NY Metro PRIDE Employee Resource Group. After their meeting, the Best Buy employees rolled up their sleeves to spend the afternoon beautifying PFY’s facility as a community service project.
The group fixed up the garden at the entrance of the building, helped with a bulk mailing and set up a hallway gallery of artwork created by PFY’s clients. With all of the volunteer hours that they put in, they were eligible to request a $1,000 grant from their company to support PFY’s Summer Camp program.
“I can’t thank the PRIDE Employee group and Best Buy enough for their generosity,” says PFY Director Andy Peters. “We were honored to be chosen as the recipient of their good deeds.”
The project was spearheaded by the President of PRIDE Paul Sanders who is also a member of PFY’s Advisory Committee. PRIDE stands for People Respecting Individual Differences Equally. The group, which is welcoming to all Best Buy employees, was created to provide a safe place for LGBT and straight workers to promote tolerance within the company, discuss common concerns and get involved in the community.
The campers enjoying a day at Dorney Park, one of many fun activities planned for the trip.
Training the Medical Community
Doctors on
In an effort to address this issue, various members of the medical community have reached out to Pride for Youth for assistance and training in LGBT awareness.
Mike Brown, MSW and Pride for Youth’s Assistant Director, conducts LGBT sensitivity workshops and several months ago was asked by Nassau Health Care Corporation to do a version of the workshop tailored to medical professionals working with youth. His excitement at the invitation did not cloud his knowledge that the workshops would be a challenge for him and his training co-facilitators Travis Tucker and Devin Escobar.
“Many of the staff had never talked about LGBT issues before. Within a medical setting, staff tend to be focused on the physical appearance of the patient rather than the social or environmental issues that the patient is dealing with,” Brown said. “We found out they weren’t ignoring LGBT health-related issues, they were just unaware.”
Brown ended up being invited to conduct the workshop at Nassau Health Care Corporation’s 5 community-based clinics, sensitizing doctors, nurses, clerks and technicians about how to work with LGBT youth. His training curriculum stresses that clinicians should never assume that a patient is straight and to use gender neutral words when talking about sexual partners.
When doctors assume a patient is straight, it makes it harder for the patient to be honest with the doctor about the behavior and emotional issues that could be affecting their health.
“It’s important for doctors to know a patient’s sexuality, to know whether they are out to their family or not,” says Dr. Alex Thundercloud, Medical Director of the Pediatric Mobile Health Unit of North Shore/Long Island Jewish Health Care System. “If they aren’t out, the stress of hiding it can have very adverse health effects, both mentally and physically. If they are out, coming out unfortunately sometimes leads to being kicked out of their homes, and living on the street leaves a youth at risk for a multitude of health issues.”
Dr. Thundercloud tries to address this issue from within the medical field itself, by having his resident interns, as part of their training, visit Pride for Youth at its busiest time: its Friday night drop-in center, Coffeehouse. Dr. Thundercloud believes that exposing his interns to an atmosphere so accepting of various sexualities and gender identities while they are still training makes them more comfortable with asking the necessary questions to address these important health-related issues.
“It opens their eyes. Now that the word about PFY is out among my residents,” he said, “they all want to come back.”
Both Mike Brown and Dr. Thundercloud agree not addressing sexual identity nowadays, with increased awareness of LGBT issues, would be an ignorant and dangerous mistake for medical professional to make. They also both agree an essential part of the awareness training is doctors being able to give Pride for Youth as a referral to their adolescent patients.
“Along with the specific health care needs, there is a huge social, mental, and emotional need, as well,” said Brown. “And that’s where we come in.”
