WAYOUT LOS ANGELES

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ABOUT wayOUT LOS ANGELES

wayOUT Los Angeles was founded in 2019 as the third local chapter in the wayOUT family. With chapter members from an incredibly diverse background, wayOUT LA has become a family to each other while staking a claim in the Los Angeles LGBTQ+ community.

It may be LaLaLand, but this group has their feet firmly on the ground and is ready to fundraise again this year.

LGBTQ IN LA

LGBT culture in Los Angeles has deep roots in the counterculture movement of the 1960s. Los Angeles endured the countercurrents of the 1960s as much as any other city in the country. More specifically, LA's Queer culture became visible and highly politicized in response to a string of violent bar raids that took place on Sunset Strip in the 60s. Today, West Hollywood may serve as the heart of the LGBTQ+ community in Los Angeles, but our chapter members come from all over the city to collaborate and work towards empowering queer youth.

Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges.

— Bob Paris

OUTRIGHT VERMONT | Burlington, VT

MISSION:

Building a Vermont where all LGBTQ+ youth have hope, equity, and power!

This year, our wayOUT LA chapter chose to partner with Outright Vermont to support their incredible Camp Outright, because their mission aligns so perfectly with our own: to offer safe spaces, resources, and often life-saving community to LGBTQ+ youth, supporting campers not just from the surrounding Vermont area, but from dozens of states and a wide range of backgrounds. Camp Outright provides a uniquely LGBTQ-centric camp environment for youth who often have no queer community around them in their hometowns, giving them the crucial opportunity to feel seen and understood amongst fellow LGBTQ+ peers, while also offering them access to affirming healthcare and mental health services that are often so hard to access in their day-to-day lives. In a social climate when there is so much hostility towards the LGBTQ+ community, our chapter is thrilled to support an organization that helps youth to celebrate the “superpower” of their queer or trans identities and uplifts them with queer joy.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUTRIGHT VERMONT

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VISION:

A world where LGBTQ+ youth have boundless possibilities for joy, and all people know liberation.

VALUES:

Youth to the Front: Youth power is central to the success of our mission and youth leadership must inform every level of the organization.
Queer it Up! We create opportunities to do things differently. We invite play and joy, and work to resist binary thinking. We believe in the power of transformation, and move from a place of abundance.
In It for the Long Haul: We are committed to being here for LGBTQ+ youth for the next thirty-five years and beyond. We are stewards of the work done by those who came before us, and we build on that strong foundation for those who will come next.
Community and Connection: We need each other to achieve social change.. When connected, we offer a collective wisdom and mighty determination that is unstoppable, far better than anything we could ever do on our own.
Transparency: We build choice points in every program and offering. We create opportunities for information sharing, learning, and reciprocal feedback. We share information early and often.
Accountability: We work ‘at the speed of trust,’ seeking ways to center those most deeply impacted by our actions. We acknowledge and embrace the risk and discomfort of learning. We commit to the practices of active listening, reflection, evaluation, adjustment, and repair.
Self Care, Community Care: As a small but growing, collaborative team, our effectiveness relies on being clear and explicit. We must communicate our priorities, limitations, and commitments. The difficulty of digging in is only possible when we are grounded, rested, and able to be fully present.
Defy and Disrupt Assimilation: We don't seek assimilation into the systems that cause harm; we challenge and change the norms, relationships, and institutions that uphold oppression.
Believe In Each Other: We must be willing to be changed by the truth of others, and in service to others’ truth, along the way. We practice being curious, having a growth mindset, and knowing we can’t - and should not - have all the answers.
Willing to Risk: An ethic in service to liberation is one that recognizes the importance of emergence and risk. We are striving for something more abundant than what we currently have, so experimenting and risk taking are necessary. Youth ask that we not back down.

IMPACT:

Outright serves approximately 1,500 youth every year, and provide education and support to more than 500 parents, guardians, and youth-facing professionals.
participants come from Vermont, and also from across the country. We offer one of just a handful of summer camps in the entire country designed specifically for LGBTQ+ youth.
Camp Outright currently brings youth from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington DC, and West Virginia.

PROJECTS:

Since its inception, Outright has relied upon renting spaces in order to hold Camp Outright. This has limited us to offering just two, week-long sessions of camp, leaving hundreds of youth on waiting lists each year.
With the acquisition of Camp Sunrise we will:
- Transform a 146-acre, lakefront, former Boy Scout camp into a nature retreat crafted to build welcome and joy for LGBTQ+ youth;
- Expand camp programs to run for a full summer season;
- Develop new camp programs to serve younger youth;
- Center this crucial piece of programming in an Outright Priority Area (Rutland County, an area of escalated harm against LGBTQ+ youth);
- Create a seasonal home for our other program offerings, and achieve our vision of a destination for youth, families, and youth-facing professionals for learning, organizing, and simply being together in community.