Queer Youth NetworkGrass roots political group Queer Youth Network (formerly Queer Youth Alliance) have been quietly helping to overturn legislation that has hindered our liberties as young LGBT people since 1999. One of their original objectives was to have a piece of legislation, left over from the Thatcher government which set out that schools should not promote "the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship", called Section 28, removed. This objective was finally achieved in 2003 as a result of their efforts combined with organisations such as OutRage! and Schools Out as the legislation was finally repealed. However, Kent County Council promptly brought in a carbon copy policy of their own and, where the tabloids lost interest at this point, QYN continued to pursue the homophobic policy. I joined them at their second rally outside Kent County Council in Canterbury in 2005 which saw a dynamic group of individuals passionate enough to stand outside on a chilly day, chanting, making speeches, and being photographed in-front of the "Kent County Council" sign... cheekily obscuring the O in county. Their hard work paid off when the policy, seemingly as a direct result of the action taken on that day, was also removed, leaving teachers UK-wide no official backing for ignoring homosexuality and homophobia.
I joined QYN late 2003, young and fresh faced at just 14. I started off by tentatively reading through their forums, I think I was too scared to even reply to the many topics on there at first, as I am sure many are at that age, but after getting into the forum, I soon understood that posting wasn't an issue and made my first and then a fair few more. The structure to the forum is very much the same as Gay Youth UK, with various areas focussing on different topics: current affairs, entertainment, spitting out (being their incarnation of "off-topic"). The usual friendly user-base is signed up, with an active welcoming committee, and a feisty set of debaters. Where the similarities between our services are easy to draw, I think that there is one characteristic that defines QYN and differentiates it from GYUK: politicism. It is an important distinction to make, that Queer Youth Network has an open agenda that reflects core values laid down from the start, and that their activism is not only bound to online discussions but breaks free from cyberspace and takes to the street when it is necessary to do so. In this sense Gay Youth UK's main aims are to bring people together in a social context, and along the same vein, when our members break free from cyberspace it is to join one of our purely social meet-ups.
QYN has a social side too, with their Local Groups initiative's grand vision: to have a group running regular sessions in as many regions as possible across the UK, which has seen some successes. I joined a friend of mine from QYN, who was a local groups coordinator for London back in 2004, at a group's meet-up in a working men's club in London and remember the atmosphere being quite professional. This professionalism, twinned with making some great friends is a characteristic that I admire in a youth led organisation like QYN. Unfortunately, as with many organisations such as QYN they have not been without their troubles and their local groups seemed to dwindle a bit and at one point didn't seem to be going at all. But their passion is persistent and the groups have seen a new injection of life recently which seem them back up and running in the North West, South West, London and the South East, East Anglia, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Scotland. Another initiative to bring their user-base together is the promise of their second residential, which took a hiatus last year but has been advertised to return this year in 2007.
In all I welcome our politically charged counterparts at QYN and praise the part their voice has played in attaining equal rights for young gay people across the UK. I remember a friend saying to me that he had once been a victim of homophobia at school, and that his teacher had said it was his fault that other's found out, and that there was nothing he could do about it because of Section 28. This story used to come up over and over again before it's repeal, and if it weren't for the action takens by organisations such as QYN, we would still be hearing these stories to this day.
I posed the question "Could you just write in your own words the recent changes around QYN?" to Rainbow Committee member Michael, he gave a great overview of his, and the other member of the Rainbow Committee's, roles within the recently streamlined organisation:
"The Queer Youth Network is member led and the Rainbow Committee are steered and guided by them. The Rainbow Committee is made up of 3 of the many volunteers the site has. Damian, David and myself all work professionally offline with young people ranging from paediatric nursing to youth work.
Damian (Membership Officer) is responsible for the participation and consultation of the 8000+ members he also makes sure that polices are up to date and that we stay member led. David (Communications Officer) deals with the external side of the organisation ranging from the media to online content promoting them to the outside world.
My own role as Operations Officer means that I deal with the day to day running of the organisation. The role is spilt into many parts but they primarily fall into the categories of finances, website operations and building on the foundations that are already in place organisationally."
To find out more about Queer Youth Network you can visit their website, to find out more about their campaigns you can check their issues page.