\Dear friends, supporters and allies
In the wake of well-publicized violence in Lakeview, the launch of the group Take Back Boystown, and the vitriolic CAPS meeting that garnered the attention of every major local media outlet, it is time for the community to push past the two-sided rhetoric of shouted insults and boos to uncover the complex, sensitive and difficult threads at work in both the violence itself and the reactions to it.
At the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance ( the Alliance ) , a youth organizing group committed to ensuring Illinois schools fully address sexual orientation and gender identity, we are committed to participating in a process that seeks to surface the issues of ageism, racism, classism and transphobia inherent in the violence and community reactions.
We propose a format where individuals and organizations that are committed to community dialogue on these issues come together with middle and high school-aged youth and young adult voices being central. This process must include youth, young adults, Lakeview residents and community-based organizations, queer organizations of color, youth-led organizations, LGBT community centers and businesses, and transgender and gender-variant focused organizations. The Alliance has worked with schools and communities throughout the state in prioritizing youth voices through a process of addressing very complex situations involving violence and oppression and know we can move forward together.
In order to begin this process, the Alliance youth committee is committed to participating in a real conversation with other youth of color and allies to ensure youth voices are heard and are leading the efforts to move past vitriol into solutions that put forward the lived realities of young people oppressed by a combination of factors including race, sexual orientation, class, age, immigration status and gender identity.
At present, the youth committee's strategies for reaching the above-mentioned goals include:
1 ) Creating an advertising campaign in the Chicago LGBT press and Boystown community,
2 ) Creating intentional "safe spaces" within Boystown, and gathering youth, young adults and adults together for a dialogue within these spaces,
3 ) Putting together peace circles to bring people together from all sides of the argument to engage in a respectful dialogue where power is shared,
4 ) Attending a CAPS meeting as one large group to join in the discussion.
At the Alliance, we seek to engage other groups in and outside of the LGBT community who want to push past the name-calling and shouting and move to a space where we can hold each other and our community centers accountable to meeting and exceeding the needs of those often seen as the most vulnerable. For us, it is a struggle to seek and retain our humanity in the face of inhumanity through violence, racism, greed, and oppression. To join the Alliance youth committee in this dialogue, please contact us directly at youthcommittee@illinoissafeschools.org .
In solidarity,
The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance
youth committee, board,
staff and volunteers