Live Out Loud’s main goal is to connect LGBT youth to role models and leaders in the LGBT community, people who are passionate about their life’s work and committed to sharing their stories, insight, and advice with the next generation.
School Program
Volunteer role models are connected with LGBTQ youth in high school GSA clubs. Speakers discuss their personal journeys, including coming-out stories, career paths, as well as their successes and challenges.
The Homecoming Project
Sends successful LGBTQ role models to their hometown high schools to share their stories with the next generation.
Educational
Scholarships
Awarded annually to area high school students who demonstrate a strong capacity to “Live Out Loud.” They are making strides in the LGBT Community, both on and off campus and are active in their school’s GSAs.
Behind the Scenes
Connects youth with professional LGBTQ-affinity groups at major corporations. This unique program allows LGBTQ youth to meet out professionals who can help them see the support offered to LGBTQ employees.
The Gathering
A community-wide program that draws together LGBTQ youth and their allies from across New York City. At this exciting monthly program, students get together to discuss issues, listen to speakers, plan projects, and have fun.
Live Out Loud’s Marketing Associate Jeff Hagan shares the 3 most common fears held by LGBTQ youth returning to school, and what you can do to make a difference…
Delmar Dualeh was Live Out Loud’s Homecoming Project Intern for the 2013-2014 school year. After a year of helping LGBTQ community members return to their hometown high schools, he decided to return to his own high school to become a role model for the next generation.
I came across Live Out Loud’s Homecoming Project while trying to find meaningful volunteer opportunities in NYC, specifically working with the LGBT youth. Once I learned about The Homecoming Project, I knew it was the opportunity I had been looking for.
As an intern for youth programming, I’ve had the pleasure of working with LGBTQ and ally student groups through the programs with Live Out Loud’s partner schools. At these programs the students and the Live Out Loud facilitator discuss themes and issues relating to the LGBTQ community, creating spaces for queer teens and allies at their schools. However, one of the goals for our organization is to inspire students to take action in between our sessions. One school in particular has shown their maturity and ability for critical analysis of heteronormative culture as well as facilitating difficult conversations about queer identity with their peers.
Michael Levine, class of 1972, returned to his alma mater Ardsley High School in Westchester, NY through Live Out Loud’s Homecoming Project on February 27. Live Out Loud Homecoming Project Intern Delmar Dualeh attended with Michael and wrote the following reflection…
Gregory Boroff is the Executive Director of Friends of Hudson River Park. Gregory returned to his hometown high school in Rumson, NJ and shared his story with LGBTQ youth through Live Out Loud’s Homecoming Project. This is the story he shared with the next generation of LGBTQ and allied youth…
In recent Live Out Loud School Programs in NYC, our Manager of Youth Programming Alex LaCasse has been talking to GSAs about microaggressions – a term most students were hearing for the first time. However, over time microaggressions can have a profound effect on a young person’s self-esteem.
Coming out as bisexual has never been easy – bisexuals experience discrimination (and disbelief) from straight and gay peers alike. LGBTQ Latino teens in particular report having difficulty in finding acceptance from their families. So to support the teens at Aviation High School in Queens, Live Out Loud brought lifestyle & interior designer Rebecca Gitana Torres […]
Live Out Loud brought Courtneye Mills to Bread & Roses High School in West Harlem on January 24th to discuss her personal journey towards reconciling her faith with her LGBTQ identity. Having grown up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn around friends and family with strong feelings towards the LGBTQ community, Courtneye related well to what many students […]
Thinking about participating in the project but still have a few questions? Here's a look at what to expect when you sign up to go back to your high-school.
Watch some of our more famous Homecoming Project participants share their stories. What makes them relatable isn't their fame, but the experiences they've had along the way. You can make just as big an impact on LGBT teens in your hometown.
