Operation Queer Freedom, this year’s San Diego Youth Pride theme, can boast a mission accomplished after last weekend’s successful two-day event drew over 200 supporters, despite religious right protests.

San Diego Youth Pride was initiated three years ago at The Center as a safe coming out space for GLBTQ youth, aged 14-24, to gather, interact and receive support.

This year’s event offered a family outing Friday and a laid-back entertainment festival on Saturday.

Held at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park, more than 80 teens and family members attended a film screening and discussion session organized by the Trevor Project, a non-profit endeavor established to promote acceptance of gay and questioning teens and aid in suicide prevention.

GLBTQ teenagers are three times more likely to commit suicide than heterosexual teens, which are already at greater risk of suicide, one of the top three causes of death for ages 15-24.

Ted McCombs, a UCSD student, was keynote speaker on Friday night and two youth theater productions performed May Break Your Bones, about name-calling and intolerance at schools; and Mary Springer, a comedic look at the misconceptions and questions directed at queer youth.

Saturday’s festival was a “kick-back afternoon,” said Ren Petty, director of San Diego Youth Pride, with entertainment by local groups like The New Dadaists and Frigment, who came down from Los Angeles.

“In the preparation [for] the event, we did have some opposition about the event being held on public property,” Petty said, “but we had a great outpouring from the Adult Allied Community and PFLAG [Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays], and they ensured the youth had a safe space. They didn’t have to do that and we really appreciated it.”

Petty added that on the day, 12 protesters handed out religious anti-gay pamphlets, but the protest was peaceful and didn’t encroach upon the Pride event.

Petty added, “There’s a youth area at San Diego Pride but they [young people] don’t feel they can really be themselves around adults, and so it’s important that they have a safe space of their own creation.”

Youth Pride has a seven member youth committee, led by 25-year-old Petty, and gives teens and young GLBTQ adults community leadership opportunities that they may otherwise not have access to.

The theme Operation Queer Freedom emerged to show support for young, gay service personnel involved in the Iraq War. However, it is issues on the American doorstep that resonate so highly with GLBT youth, such as intolerant behavior at schools and the need for protection and safe spaces for youngsters to come to grips with their sexuality.

The Hillcrest Youth Center (HYC), now in its fifth year, is a drop-in center for 14-24 year olds, dedicated to providing a “safe, affirming space for LGBTQ+ youth to be proud of who they are and have the freedom to discover who they might become.”

Dana Toppel, coordinator for HYC, said “Homelessness is the number one problem. We have some youth who have been kicked out of their homes by their family because of their sexual orientation and some have left home because of abuse or just because the [house] prices are so high in San Diego.”

Homelessness, which can include sleeping in Balboa Park to “sofa surfing” from friend’s houses, naturally spawns its own set of issues, ranging from hygiene and hunger to prostitution and drug abuse.

Strides are being made, however, and in January The Center announced its plans for an innovative and nationally ground-breaking transitional youth housing project to help stabilize GLBTQ and HIV-positive youth and successfully bridge the move from homelessness.

A 23-unit property at 1640 Broadway has been purchased in conjunction with Walden Family Services, YMCA Youth and Family Services, Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of San Diego and the Children’s hospital and is expected to be operational in October.

GLBT teens are also more vulnerable to poor education and consequently, higher unemployment levels, as harassment and bullying at school takes its toll on academic performance.

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) last month released the findings of its National School Climate Survey for 2003, which found GLBT youth who reported “significant verbal harassment” are twice as likely to leave education after high school, and have “significantly lower [Grade Point Averages] GPAs.”

GLSEN found for the first time a direct relationship between in-school victimization and GPAs, with an astounding four out of five GLBT students reporting to have been verbally, sexually or physically harassed at school because of their sexual orientation.

“A lot of what I’ve been hearing is that youth feel unsafe at school, which puts their academic performance at risk,” Toppel said, but added that some students are more susceptible to bullying despite their sexual orientation, not because of it, and for others such conflict isn’t a problem to them.

Carolyn Laub, founder and executive director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network for California, acknowledges these problems but is encouraged that in the seven years the organization has been running, gay-straight alliance (GSA) clubs in California have gone from 40 to 475, accounting for 40 percent of public high schools in the state.

“The growth in GSAs speaks volumes for the kind of change that’s happening,” Laub said, “which for GLBT students is quite a revolution. Straight allies are a significant part of this process. They see it as a social-justice issue and want to be part of the change.”

Laub said that as GSAs become more commonplace, understanding is increased, homophobia in schools is no longer tolerated, and students can hold their schools accountable for their safety needs on campus.

However, she added that until state requirements exist to train teachers in GLBT inclusion, there will still be much work to be done.

“If you look at it from an economic and health care standpoint, it’s in their [the government’s] best interest [to facilitate GSAs nationally], but it has been framed as a cultural war that ties the hands of public officials that could act to make our schools safer.”

The Hillcrest Youth Center operates Tuesdays to Saturdays at varying evening times, and offers computer access, health education, youth leadership training, counseling services, discussion groups, HIV-prevention training and life skills workshops, as well as in-house movie collection, Playstation 2 and X-Box, a pool table and music.

The HYC are presently organizing this year’s LGBT Youth Prom, a free inclusionary celebration attended by nearly 400 young people last year, which is to be held at The Center on Saturday, June 25, from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.

HYC’s coordinator and prom organizer, Dana Toppel, added, “Some youth are also going to their high school prom but with opposite-sex friends, and some may only come to this other prom, [but] it’s great for them to have a safe space to be and dress however they want and not be judged for that.”

Lambda Legal, the national civil rights organization campaigning for GLBT equality, has issued a practical eight-point fact sheet outlining “What LGBTQ Youth Need to Know” about their rights during prom season.

The fact sheet states anti-discriminatory laws, which support the rights of same-sex dates to attend their school prom, detailed in step-by-step advice to enable GLBT prom attendees to be as best prepared as possible for a range of barriers that may present themselves.

But GLBT youth are not just waiting for adults to provide social services for them. Two major Web sites have recently been launched: TruthSetsFree.net by 20-year-old gay Christian student Justin Cannon, and an updated version of the world’s largest youth portal, Mogenic.com, which was the brainchild of Michael Wilson when he was just 16.

On the fifth anniversary of Mogenic.com this month, Wilson released Fuchsia, giving the 500,000 gay member site a new look, enhanced forums, chat areas and access to the largest global youth personals database.

“Mogenic holds firm to its original mission and purpose of reducing isolation and depression for the world’s gay and lesbian youth. [It’s] a very special place on the Internet where gay and lesbian youth have the freedom to exchange ideas, share experiences, discuss coming out and most importantly, make friends,” Wilson explained.

Cannon’s TruthSetsFree Web site was launched in March to discount the six main Bible verse interpretations commonly used to condemn homosexuality.

Cannon is a gay, Christian, Indiana college student minoring in religion who plans to pursue priesthood in the Episcopal Church in San Francisco.

Cannon said he hopes the site will help educate Christians and to embrace and support the GLBT community, “not despite scripture and tradition, but in light of it,” and aid young Christians in reconciling their faith with their sexuality.