Youth members of YFT are not keeping silent about the experiences they have had in school where they were bullied, harrassed, and treated as outcasts. In a partnership with Campus Harmony Inc. and Tracy Nanthavongsa Photography, Youth First Texas helped launch the Bully Suicide Project, a photo shoot and PSA that will be shown for national audiences at high schools and colleges over the next year.
It all started thanks to Beaux Wellborn, a YFT Volunteer and the Assitant Director of Campus Harmony Inc. The Dallas Voice Instant Tea Blog shares …

YFT Heads to the National Equality March

INSTANT TEA – Official Blog of the Dallas Voice – http://www.dallasvoice.com/instant-tea
September 22nd, 2009.

Last night during the North Texas GLBT Chamber of Commerce’s Pride Dinner at the Warwick Melrose Hotel, keynote speaker Cleve Jones issued a challenge: If you can’t make it to the National Equality March in October, send someone in your place.
Shortly after Jones concluded his remarks, six chamber members and/or Pride dinner attendees responded, with each agreeing to pay for one of the local LGBT youth on hand to go to Washington. The six beneficiaries from Youth First …

Youth First Texas threw water balloons and kicked some serious butt during LifeWalk’s Heatwave Waterpalooza! What could possibly be better than raising funds for AIDS Arms Inc., supporting  HIV positive men, women, and children of North Texas?
The object of the game was simple: in a team of 5, eliminate the other team without getting hit! For a full list of the rules, hit up LifeWalk’s official web page.
Our first team was YFT’s ‘Wet Behind the Ears,’ which was the volunteer team (guest starring iLead Team member Giancarlo Mossi). They took 5th place.
Jason …

Last Thursday, we promised to post all questions and answers after our Board of Directors shared their role with the youth of YFT. Please see thier replies below. If anyone has any other questions, we would love to answer them.
Where does the Board of Directors (BOD) plan to take Youth First Texas (YFT) from here?
The BOD is currently developing a 5 year strategic plan for the organization. The vision we are basing this on includesLeasing a safer, more modern space for the next 5 years Developing a plan to purchase a …

Youth First Texas’s very own Dallas PUMP! guest starred in yet another amazing performance hosted by the Turtle Creek Chorale’s small ensemble, ENCORE!, on June 10, 2009 at Theater Three. This show, “Avenue E,” with special guests, Amy Stevenson and Jenny Thurman, plays off of the rising Broadway hit, “Avenue Q.”
This performance concludes Dallas PUMP!’s outstanding season of great achievements.

The GLSEN School House Rock event marked Dallas PUMP!’s humble beginnings performing at the House of Blues on November 17, 2008
Turtle Creek Chorale’s “Hottest Holidays Ahead!” concert at the Meyerson Symphony …

In a statement released Monday by the Press Secretary of The White House, President Barack Obama declared June 2009 as national LGBT month.
From THE WHITE HOUSE, Office of the Press Secretary:
Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to …

With signs in hand and voices of distress that can be heard several miles away, Youth First Texas and over 150 protesters from around the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex participated Tuesday in the national Prop 8 rally alongside several major cities including Los Angeles and New York.
The demonstration was scheduled earlier in the week originally as a gathering place for Dallas’ LGBT to celebrate the hopeful appeal of Proposition 8, the California state amendment which banned same-sex marriages.
Unfortunately, on Tuesday morning the California Supreme Court ruled to uphold the Prop 8 …

For one day out of every year, countless LGBTQ youth and their allies take a day-long vow of silence, to honor those who have been silenced, and to bring awareness to the fact that as a minority, the LGBTQ community is silenced in school settings. The National Day of Silence has served as the largest recognized motion to bring the struggles of LGBTQ youth into the spotlight.
That could all change starting next week. The National Youth Awareness Coalition, in collaboration with youth-serving organizations across the country is promoting the inaugural …

The California Supreme Court just issued its ruling upholding the validity of the Nov. 4 vote on Proposition 8, the referendum that negated the court’s May 2008 decision that legalized same-sex marriage in that state.
However the court also ruled that the approximately 18,000 same-sex marriages conducted in California during the five months that they were legal will remain valid.
In Dallas, Queer Liberaction will hold a protest rally starting at 7 p.m. at the intersection of Oak Lawn Avenue and Cedar Springs Road. The protesters will then march down Cedar Springs …