fbpx

Blog Topic

Youth

Our Voices blog

Blog

Harnessing Our Outrage

“…Later that night I held an atlas in my lap ran my fingers across the whole world and whispered where does it hurt? it answered everywhere everywhere everywhere” —Warsan Shire   Two days after a sniper killed five Dallas police officers, this poem, by expat Somali poet Warsan Shire, who came to world’s attention when […]

More

Blog

Gender Affirming Services for all California Foster Children

NCLR is proud to collaborate with Family Builders and the Center for the Study of Social Policy on getR.E.A.L. California–an initiative aimed at promoting the healthy sexual and identity development of all children involved with the California child welfare system. The initiative partners have produced a new issue brief aimed at helping child welfare professionals […]

More

Blog

Supreme Court Order Marks the End of Legal Challenges to New Jersey’s Ban on Conversion Therapy for Minors

On February 29, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Doe v. Christie, a case challenging New Jersey’s law prohibiting state-licensed therapists from engaging in the discredited practice of conversion therapy with patients under 18 years of age. The Supreme Court’s order allows the law to remain in full effect and marks the final […]

More

Blog

We NEED Your Help in South Dakota

One of the most horrific anti-transgender bills in the country will move before South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard for consideration as early as today. House Bill 1008 forces transgender students to use a separate bathroom from all other students and prohibits schools from having supportive policies treating them the same as other students. If Governor […]

More

Blog

I Quit: I’m Leaving the Mormon Church

I just did something I thought I would never do. I resigned my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) and asked that my name be removed from the records. Even at the height of church involvement in the passage of Proposition 8 in California, I never seriously considered removing […]

More

Blog

#BornPerfect: A Year In and We’re Not Backing Down

A year ago, we set out with a goal—protect LGBTQ children from conversion therapy by wiping out the dangerous and discredited practice in just five years. Since then, our #BornPerfect campaign has helped protect thousands of kids across the country from practices linked to severe depression, substance abuse, and even suicide. And we couldn’t have […]

More

Blog

The President Joins Our Fight

Nine months ago, NCLR launched our #BornPerfect campaign to end the use of conversion therapy on LGBTQ youth in five years. At the time, we thought it was an ambitious goal. We could not have imagined then the speed with which this movement has already grown or the impact it has already made. Thanks to […]

More

Blog

The Cost of Awareness

The suicide of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn has prompted widespread media attention, including a focus on her description of how being sent to conversion therapy increased her sense of isolation and rejection. Now more than ever before, it is clear that there is an urgent need for more public discussion and education around the harms […]

More

Blog

Our Goal—End Conversion Therapy in Five Years

No child should ever be hurt because of who they are. That’s why we started the #BornPerfect campaign to end conversion therapy across the country over the next five years. We need your financial support to make it happen. All attempts to change their sexual orientation or gender identity through conversion therapy damage LGBTQ youth, […]

More

Blog

The Human Element: Making Conversion Therapy in the U.S. an International Human Rights Issue

There we were. Around the illustrious circular United Nations briefing tables at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, among the 70 human rights advocates from across the United States, the largest delegation in the history of the U.N.’s Committee Against Torture (CAT). Together, as a leader of the National Center for Lesbian Right’s (NCLR) #BornPerfect […]

More

Blog

NCLR Urges U.N. Committee Against Torture to End Conversion Therapy

This Tuesday, I will walk into the historic Palais de Nations in Geneva, Switzerland to meet with representatives of the United Nations and the U.S. Department of State as part of the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ #BornPerfect campaign to protect LGBTQ youth from conversion therapy, the dangerous and discredited practice of attempting to change […]

More

Blog

Coming Out Against Conversion Therapy

Today, on National Coming Out Day, countless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people around the world will find the courage,  through one another, to tell the world who they really are. But this day is more than a just a celebration of the freedom to be ourselves.  It commemorates the 1987 National March […]

More

Blog

All LGBTQ Kids Are #BornPerfect

Even as the LGBTQ community enjoys huge gains in understanding and acceptance. Even as we have key leaders from every sector and across every spectrum supporting our full equality and rejecting rank bigotry. Even as we seem closer than ever to winning the freedom to marry nationwide, a persistent and longstanding threat has reemerged. You […]

More

Blog

Title IX Protection of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students

On April 29, 2014, the United States Department of Education (DOE) released guidance that will have a significant impact on ongoing efforts to protect transgender and gender nonconforming students. The guidance, which focused on schools’ obligations to combat sexual assault on campus, explicitly recognized Title IX protects transgender students from discrimination. This is a great […]

More

Blog

STD Awareness for LGBTQ Youth

April is National STD Awareness Month! STD, short for “sexually transmitted disease,” actually refers to a whole spectrum of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Unfortunately, there are quite a few myths about STDs, especially concerning how vulnerable the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) community is to contracting them. Three of the most dangerous myths […]

More

Blog

Our Summer of Landmark Victories!

NCLR has been on a tear the past several weeks. Each week, we’ve reported a great new success—our win for high school student Dynasty Young in Indiana, our federal court victory in Pennsylvania for surviving same-sex spouse Jennifer Tobits, our historic partnership with the Department of Justice on behalf of a transgender student in Arcadia, CA, and this […]

More

Blog

Read All About it! The New York Times Celebrates NCLR’s Historic Victory!

Just yesterday, you heard from us about the groundbreaking settlement announced by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education in our case to win equal access and protections for young transgender people. Last night, The New York Times published an editorial celebrating this agreement, calling on every school district in America to adopt the guidelines […]

More

Blog

A Victory for Youth!

You already know that the NCLR staff is comprised of talented and wicked-smart individuals who possess an unwavering commitment to the full dignity and humanity of all LGBTQ people. But you don’t often hear directly from the key staff members who make so much of what we do possible. Today, in this message from NCLR […]

More

Blog

We Won for Dynasty!

In the same week that we celebrated the end of Proposition 8 and Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), NCLR was on the brink of settlement in a key case for one of our most inspiring clients. Dynasty Young is gay, African-American, and proudly gender non-conforming. What happened to him is appalling […]

More