Three is a charm: Trio of youth centers cater to young, Black, gay population in ATL

Article by Ryan Lee 6/13/2008


AS MORE GAY YOUTH COME OUT OF THE closet at an earlier age, the number of gay youth centers in Atlanta continues to increase. There are currently three self-standing gay youth centers in the heart of the city: Da C.R.I.B.B. in Grant Park, Youth Pride in Inman Park and AID Atlanta’s Evolution Center downtown.


“We need all three in the city right now,” says Frances-Ann Moran, board president of YouthPride. “We need to have as many options available for young people. They have the same issues that youth who aren’t LGBTQ have, and they have issues that are compounded.”


Established in 1995, YouthPride is the largest and longest-operating of the three gay youth groups, serving about 200 youth per month. The organization recently created an in-house counseling position that it hopes increases its abilities to help gay youth deal with the variety of struggles the experience.


“We realized we had a need for it when our staff reached out to the executive director and board saying it was an urgent need,” Moran says.



After a seven-month search, YouthPride hired Tana Hall, a licensed professional counselor who specializes in youth and family issues. Hall is also a former board chair of YouthPride, and Moran hopes her familiarity with the organization will jumpstart the organization’s counseling project.“It’s not a stranger, it’s not setting up an appointment in a new place - it’s creating a space where youth are comfortable talking about their lives,” she says. But the prolonged search for a new counselor also further exposed challenges YouthPride has had diversifying its leadership. Throughout the entire search process, not a single African-American with a counseling license applied for the job, Moran says.“That for us highlighted the need for us to continue to reach out to the community, and building relationships, and healing wounds,” Moran says. “Quite frankly, [YouthPride has not been] able to historically deliver a truly diverse organization on the adult level and the youth level.” With African-American gay and lesbian youth accounting for nearly half of YouthPride participants, they “need folks who look like them in positions of power, and who they can look up to,” she said.


AFRICAN-AMERICAN GAY YOUTH ARE THE primary target demographic of both Da C.R.I.B.B. and the Evolution Project, two CDC-funded initiatives aimed at reducing HIV/AIDS infection rates among young gay black and Latino men.“It helps to bring this generation some awareness and education about HIV/AIDS, but it also gives them a safe space to be who they are,” says Jon Gabriel Ortiz, director of Da C.R.I.B.B., which stands for Creating Rich Intelligent Black Brothas.


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