2024 End of Year Reflection
Dear Friends,
We want to take a moment to reflect on what 2024 looked like for us, and what we have to look forward to in 2025. We’ve all experienced a lot of transitions, uncertainty, and upheaval, but we’ve also had a lot of opportunities for growth and community.
“We've made so much progress in the past year it's unreal” – Evren (he/they), age 19, Programs Associate
Youth OUTright started out the year with a new, weekly in-person schedule for programs, meeting in a small community space in Montford. Over the summer, we got the amazing opportunity to expand and open a new center for Queer and Trans youth! We officially welcomed folks into our new space in September. Despite only being able to be open for two weeks prior to Hurricane Helene, we regrouped in October and came back better than ever.
Our space offers art supplies, games, books, snacks, and a whole free store full of harm reduction and gender-affirming supplies, and much more! We look forward to hosting so many amazing programs and drop-in sessions next year. We’ll be showing off the space to community members of all ages at our Grand Opening and Open House [LINK GIVEBUTTER] on January 16th, 2025.
In 2024, we began to feel the effects of several dangerous bills from the North Carolina legislature. In February, with beloved local pottery company East Fork, we hosted Speak OUT [LINK TO YOUTUBE VIDEO?], a panel about Trans students experiences in Western NC. Alongside a moderator, four youth discussed the impact of Senate Bill 49 (aka “Don’t Say Gay”), House Bill 574 (targeting trans athletes), and House Bill 808 (prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors). We also shared calls to action and strategies for resistance with the attendees, who consisted of educators and community members.
“Youth OUTright has really given me hope as I have been discovering myself and gives me a lot of joy and hope for queer people in dark times!” – Lark (he/it), age 18, Youth Advisory Board Member
Our annual events kicked off strong! In May, we hosted our 13th Queer Youth Prom with the theme High Fantasy. We saw so many incredible, inventive costumes from young folks, and were treated to fantastic drag performances from local queens Alexis Black, Incredible Violence, and Sev!
In June, we reconvened for our annual Stonewall Pride Picnic, which featured a potluck, arts and crafts, and a drag story hour with the fabulous Max McSnacks. As always, this event served as a reminder of our shared Queer history and the importance of community.
We came together with Queer-owned gallery Art Garden in September to open Expressions: a Queer and Trans youth art show, which provided space for up-and-coming youth artists to share meaningful artistic explorations of identity and joy. We also hosted a gender-affirming makeup workshop with local theater artist Lucien Hinton in Art Garden’s lovely space in the River Arts District.
September also saw our region experience the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene. Due to intense damage to Art Garden and the RAD, as well as many other areas, Youth OUTright could not host the closing reception for Expressions, and we were also forced to close our doors for several weeks. We are still mourning the loss of lives and livelihoods experienced by so many in our community, but we are also so impressed by and grateful for the strength of our community and the work of countless organizers to recover and rebuild.
Youth OUTright is thankful to report that all of our staff made it through the hurricane alive and had access to resources. During such a time of uncertainty, we devised a multi-step recovery and response plan for our organization [LINK TO BLOG POST]. We started with mutual aid, moved into our second phase of emergency funding distribution, and are now happy to say that we have reached our goal of reopening our space to the community.
This year, we also went through some staffing transitions. In May, we said goodbye to our Executive Director, Adrian Parra, as they moved on to their new role as the National Program Association Manager for the GSA Network. We wish them the best of luck in this new endeavor! Additionally, we welcomed two new folks to our team. Eddie is taking on our social media as our new Communications Manager, and London has stepped in to help with all things Youth Center and budget-related as Operations Director.
“It's been such a gift to be a part of the opening of the Youth Center and I'm looking forward to creating BIPOC queer youth spaces next year!” – London (they/them), age 24, Operations Director
Between staff entrances and exits, we’ve taken the opportunity to re-evaluate Youth OUTright’s leadership structure to embrace a bottom-up, youth-focused approach/strategy. As we move into 2025, Youth OUTright will transition into a Co-Director model which emphasizes non-hierarchical leadership and allows us to work together as a stronger team.
We are excited to say that we have been able to provide all of our staff members with salary increases to ensure that everyone is paid the same hourly rate regardless of position. This allows us to support our youth staff members better and create more avenues for youth input in our day-to-day operations and programming. In the spirit of increasing youth involvement, Youth OUTright also established a Youth Advisory Board, which brings together six local youth organizers from different backgrounds to help inform our decisions and provide opportunities for leadership development.
“It's awesome to be a part of something as meaningful as the YAB. The WNC queer community is so dear to me, and being able to help provide insight into ways we can benefit queer youth here is so important!” – Kennedy (she/her), age 17, Youth Advisory Board Member
Youth OUTright is so proud of the work we did in 2024, and we’re looking forward to everything we have planned for 2025. Our work is made possible by our funders and community members. We need your support to come back even stronger next year!
Dearly and Queerly,