March 5, 2019

Joshua Houston

How important is an organization like Safe Space NOVA to the LGBT+ youth community? This organization is important to the LGBT+ youth community because youth need to see people that represent and validate their experience. Understanding your sexuality and gender is uncharted territory for most youth and having a space where those delicate conversations can be held to charter this course can be enlightening, supportive and even life changing. This age group specifically needs this support as it detriment to their emotional- well being and their trajectory in life.

How important do you think it is to target 14-18 year old range? As an educator, I cannot stress how imperative it is to target this age group. This is the age where teens are finding their own independence in the world around them. This age group is also feeling emotions that are foreign, yet exciting and scary. They are processing ideas and images seen in the mainstream about gender, relationships, gender roles, love, race, and sexuality – to name a few.

What are some of the challenges and roadblocks that you have personally faced with in the LGBT+ community and how do you think Safe Space NOVA can break down any barriers? Reflecting on this question, the roadblock that I have personally faced and at times continue to face is internalized homophobia, especially in POC communities. The internalized homophobia comes from the guilt or shame surrounding their own sexuality which manifests itself into other harmful actions, such as ‘bullying’ within our own community. The Safe Space can break down barriers in the conversation by truly being a supportive environment for LGBT+ youth. With this particular demographic, it needs to be reinforced that they are enough and while our journeys in our queerness may be different, you should never fit into someone else’s construct, but the one you are most comfortable.

Also, Safe Space can break down barriers by truly bringing the conversation to this demographic that queerness is not a monolithic experience and that we all, across the spectrum need and should support each other – especially in this political climate. Most of the civil rights that we have as a community today were because of the fight led by non-binary and trans people who fought the status quo.

Have you personally dealt with or witnessed someone firsthand deal with the issues in the LGBT+ community that Safe Space NOVA is aiming to prevent (depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, drug abuse, etc.)? I have dealt with depression around my sexuality – especially during my later teens and young adult years. Before I became an educator, I was a case manager for HIV/AIDS populations in Harlem and South Bronx. In that capacity, I have witnessed and counseled clients through all of the things that Safe Space NOVA is trying to prevent – which is why the work there is so important.