I’ve written a bit before about Dreams of Hope, a Pittsburgh organization that I think is doing amazing work for LGBTQ youth and their allies. For far too long the greater LGBT community hasn’t focused enough on youth, for a variety of reasons. but today, it may be both easier for kids to come out as well as more challenging, and in response, we need to be doing things that create safe spaces for kids to be themselves and get support for who they are, exactly as they are.

Maybe, when I was that age, there were other gay teens, but none that I knew. I didn’t start to know there were others who felt like me till after I left High School. There was one other guy in my graduating class who was gay, but neither of us knew about the other (let alone really know how to self-identify) under we met in a gay bar a few years later. We even ran with the same crowd, and never knew. How isolated all of our feelings were back then. Seems like it is different for many kids today!

But as kids start to come out earlier, the anti-gay folks also try and use these kids as weapons and try to use more fear and intimidation to keep them isolating and self-hating. So, groups like Dreams of Hope provides a creative and supportive environment to use music, art, poetry, and other tools to come to understand themselves and celebrate diversity and build support with their friends.

From the Dreams of Hope Website:

Dreams of Hope is hosting an overnight arts camp from August 17 – 20th for LGBTA youth ages 13-17. Each day will include arts, games, educational workshops, and traditional camp activities.

The camp will be held at the Emma Kaufmann Camp on Cheat Lake near Morganton, West Virginia.

In addition to Drumming, Movement, Drama, and Spoken Word, we will have High and Low Ropes Courses, Athletics, Instruction and Recreational Swimming, Water Skiing, Canoeing, Knee Boarding, Tubing, Kayaking, Arts & Crafts, Hiking, Ceramics, Campfires and Karaoke.

Campers will:

• Grow their artistic abilities and talents.
• Participate in fun and challenging activities.
• Develop friendships with young people from other geographic areas, ethnicities, and socio-economic and racial backgrounds.
• Explore issues they face in their schools and neighborhoods, and learn how to combat the obstacles they face.
• Have a space where they can relax and be themselves!

Cost is $500 per camper. Scholarships available upon request.

We only have space for 24 campers this year, so fill out this form to get a registration packet mailed to you today!

Dreams Of Hope.

For me, Summer Camp was Boy Scout Camp, and it was always such a mixed bag of emotions and experiences. Looking back, I was clearly one of the oddest kids, and yet, I was a leader, so I was often “on the inside.” I did well at “Scout” stuff like merit badges, and camping things. I was just horrible at sports, but our troop was never big on sports stuff. At the camp, I always experienced a mix of how glad I was to be there, and at the same time, a surety that I stuck out, and everyone was laughing at me. How great would it be, to go to a camp, where I had fit in, entirely? The Dreams of Hope Camp!

Ig you know of any young people who may want to participate, follow the link to the Dreams of Hope Camp Registration .