April 5, 2022

When I was in high school, in the mid-to-late-1990s, being gay wasn’t an identity. It was the punchline to a joke. Gay boys were boys who couldn’t catch a football, or who were good at English and math, or who kept to themselves in the library. So imagine my joy at discovering, well into my twenties, that gay boys like me were worthy of celebration! Not only that, but there was a vast and exciting community of people like me out there—people who chose to live their lives in the open, to be proud instead of a punchline!

But what if that beautiful discovery had come earlier, back as a teenager in high school, when I’d needed it the most? What if I’d had a group of peers and adults to educate me, to empower me, to connect me with the larger LGBTQ+ world around me? Supportive environments like that would have been a flashlight in a dark room, a hand outstretched to pull me off the edge of a perpetual cliff. So imagine my joy at discovering that with Safe Space NOVA, LGBTQ+ high schoolers have those lights to brighten up the dark, those hands to pull them into welcoming arms.

I’m happy now, and safe now, and alive now, because I know I’m not alone. And thanks to Safe Space NOVA and other like-minded organizations, future LGBTQ+ generations will know that, too. Except they’ll have the great good fortune to make that discovery much, much earlier.