Greetings and happy pride! We are busy planning lots of great Outright events. The Fire Truck Pull, the Queer Youth Awards Celebration, a post primary Gubernatorial Candidate Forum, and the Youth Pride Report are all underway and keeping everyone very busy. Outright staff are also doing some summer cleanup and organizing in the office, so stop by and see us. The space looks amazing!

We are getting ready for the upcoming school year. We are finalizing our Anti-Bullying, Queer 101, and Trans 101 presentations and creating a new curriculum on how to be a good ally to queer youth. We will mail info packets to all Vermont public schools at the end of August and expect to schedule more presentations than ever before. During the 2009-2010 school year, Outright presented 151 Anti-Bullying presentations to over 4000 participants.

The Fire Truck Pull is coming soon! There are already twelve teams confirmed. We’d like twenty teams, so if you’d like to participate in this hilarious fundraiser, email ella@outrightvt.org. I am doing all the fundraising for the youth team and need help. If you have a few dollars to spare to sponsor them, the link to our Firstgiving page is:

http://www.firstgiving.com/queeryouthteamftp2010

Happy Pride Week! I am so proud of all the Outright youth, staff, volunteers, and Board members for working to make Vermont a safe place for LGBTQ youth. Thank you. I am particularly excited to see my first Vermont Drag Idol on July 24 at 7pm at Higher Ground (tickets are just 10.00 and all proceeds benefit Outright!). I’d love to see you at the Outright info table at Pride, stop by and get a free t-shirt with any donation of $15.00 or more!

And while we’re talking about Pride, the 2010 Youth Pride Report will be delivered to your mailbox soon.

Have questions, need more information, or want to make a suggestion? Please email me at Melissa@outrightvt.org.