|
|
Vol. LXV, No. 27
|
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
|
|
|
|
Vol. LXV, No. 27
|
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
|
 (Photo by Ellen Gilbert)
PERCEPTIVE PEERS: The 20 high school seniors who serve on the HiTOPS Teen Council have undergone extensive training to become effective peer sexual health educators in their schools and communities. Throughout the year, Teen Council conducts workshops in middle schools, high schools, and juvenile detention centers throughout the state of New Jersey. They are part of HiTOPS’s “critical intervention” helping to create safe spaces for LGBTQ youth.
|
The news was described as “devastating,” but HiTOPS Executive Director Elizabeth Casparian was upbeat.
Responding to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) indicating that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and queer (LGBTQ) young people are “shockingly under-served and face health risks on every front,” Ms. Casparian said she saw “hopeful signs of change.”
I thought the headline was a joke. A morbid April Fool shocker perpetuated by the Daily Mirror. Except it was July 2, not April 1. I stared at the battery of papers displayed at the newsstand on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street. Ernest Hemingway’s face was grinning back at me under the massive black words,