Hey John,

As you've probably seen online, this morning the Supreme Court ruled that it is illegal to fire someone for being LGBTQ+, a historic ruling and huge victory 70+ years in the making!

How did this happen? Sure, we can give credit to the lawyers who prepared the arguments and the Justices who ruled in our favor, but we can't forget that the only reason this happened is because public opinion on LGBTQ rights has changed dramatically over the last couple decades. The fact is brave young activists - led by Black trans women! - came out, spoke out, demonstrated in the streets, were beaten, arrested, called crazy radicals, and never gave up! Slowly but surely, they changed minds and moved the country forward.

We've trained youth activists for years - they envision a better world, speak to their friends and family about it, organize their communities, and over many years of demonstrations, teach-ins, and calls for change, they win! Sometimes they're told what they want is impossible. That full equality the way they envision it will never happen. But that's the beauty and ingenuity of young people - they see a world many people in power can't yet envision, and then they set out to make it happen.

Can you support the next generation of youth activists? Right now, we're recruiting a whole new class of youth activists who will organize for the next big win. But we need resources to support their campaigns.

By donating here today, you can help us train young LGBTQ+ activists on how to organize a campaign, direct action 101, digital and communications strategy, and more! Your donation is an investment in the next generation of activists, so that years from now when we're celebrating the next big win, you can say that you helped launch that campaign years ago.

The above pictures are from when we rallied outside the Supreme Court last year around this issue. Shabre West, a youth activist in our Youth Resource program for LGBTQ+ youth of color spoke in front of the court, rallying protesters outside to declare that LGBTQ youth deserve affirmation, support and safety, not discrimination. We want to keep training Shabre and others like her. Chip in here to help us do that now.

Thank you,

Debra Hauser
President & CEO
Advocates for Youth