Youth health issues focus of meeting
Do you remember the angst-full days of adolescence when you believed you were the only person in the world who was struggling with the issues of sexual identity and sexual orientation? What resources were available to you and to whom did you turn to for help? Today's youth experience the same emotions and life questions but with a difference. Resources that were unavailable in the past are available for youth wrestling with these issues. The Coalition for Education on Sexual Orientation ( CESO ) is one of those resources.
CESO is a project of the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, a not-for-profit organization that has worked on teen health issues since 1977. CESO has been in existence for two years and is initiating an outreach phase to individuals and organizations who concur with CESO's mission of "ensuring the safety and well being of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth in Illinois schools through education, public policy, research, and student involvement."
According to Laura McAlpine, one of the two coordinators for CESO, there are 16 organizations that are a part of the coalition. Member organizations include state agencies, schools, youth-serving organizations, parent groups, and advocacy groups. CESO's conveners had planned for a visit from one of the coalition's funders, the Princess Diana of Wales Fund, but illness prevented the fund's representative from attending the most recent quarterly meeting.
The absence of a funder's representative didn't prevent those gathered from sharing information about their ongoing work. Representatives from About Face Youth Theatre, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, the City of Chicago Department of Heath Office of Lesbian and Gay Health, and Peoria's Rainbow Youth Outreach were among the groups represented. McAlpine and her colleague, Lynnette Stamps, emphasized their intentions to have the coalition be a statewide entity and were pleased that representatives from Peoria were present.
Among the information shared at the meeting was a compilation of facts about LBGTQ adolescents compiled by The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States ( SIECUS ) . SIECUS stated that among self-identified gay and bisexual men surveyed in college, 20% said then knew their orientation in junior high school and 17% knew in grade school. Among self-identified gay and bisexual college women 6% knew they were gay in junior high school and 11% knew in grade school. SIECUS also reported that 41% of secondary school counselors' surveyed schools were not doing enough to help LBGT students to adjust to their school environments.
Betty Lark Ross, the local GLSEN co-chair, said that there are 700 members locally and 22,000 members nationally. Ross shared with those present the progress in GLSEN's on-going campaign to make the video It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School available to all local Chicago Public Schools.
[ Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons, will be in town July 9 to attend an event at About Face Youth Theatre. The event is the first-ever meeting of grantees of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, a big funder of About's Face's Youth Project. Yeardley is on the board of the Diana Fund; ( 773 ) 549-7943, ext. 105. ]