Growing up LGBT in the Bay Area isn't as easy as some people might think, and Jason Galisatus, a 19-year-old Stanford University sophomore, can attest to that. Middle school, he said, was particularly hard. Teasing was commonplace, bullying was typical, and every insult sliced like a painful "paper cut."
Then, in 2007, Galisatus entered Aragon High School in San Mateo where he discovered the school's gay-straight alliance. It was the first time Galisatus, a self-identified mixed-race cisgender gay male, encountered an outlet to explore, expand, and embrace his suppressed identity. (Cisgender is defined on Wikipedia as being when an individual's self-perception of their gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth, complementing transgender.)
He also discovered the meaning of community and since then, has dedicated his every spare moment to developing unprecedented and creative forms of activism that enable other LGBT and allied youth to make a difference in their local communities.
Bay Area Youth Summit is the brainchild of Galisatus and around 10 other high school students that got together in 2010 to make a few changes. Little did they know their LGBT youth empowerment and anti-bullying organization would be selected by public vote as this year's organizational community grand marshal.
"My sophomore year, I'd taken over my school's GSA," Galisatus said. "That's when we called other San Mateo high school GSA leaders and rallied them together at one of our houses. I don't think we realized the youth-led movement we were initiating."
BAYS is the only completely youth-led LGBT organization in the world, according to its website. Securing 501(c)3 nonprofit status in 2012, BAYS is comprised of an unpaid working board of directors that are college undergraduate age and younger. Currently, its youngest member is 13. In addition, it has an advisory board comprised of adult LGBT community leaders that provide support.
"The board of advisers doesn't have governance over the organization," Galisatus said, "but the fact remains that we're young people and don't know everything. So, we solicit advice from adults who have demonstrated leadership in the LGBT community."
Three-pronged approach
BAYS uses a comprehensive three-pronged approach to both strengthen community building among LGBT youth, and decrease LGBT bullying in middle and high schools.
The first of their programs is called the Summit, a biennial leadership training conference for LGBT and allied youth to learn about anti-bullying tactics to exercise in their school environments. Empowerment, Galisatus emphasized, is the core purpose of the conference, which is a combination of workshops and speakers.
"The speakers inspire, motivate, and provide that pathos that drives people to get involved," he explained. "The workshops teach how and when one can apply that new activist drive."
Around 250 people attended this year's summit in May at Aragon High School in San Mateo. Speakers included the Oscar-winning Milk screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black; former chief operating officer and president of ETrade Financial, Kathy Levinson; and founder of Scouts for Equality, Zach Wahls. The event was emceed by Raja Gemini, the season three winner of RuPaul's Drag Race.
Hillsdale High School senior and BAYS board member Christian Guardado, 16, was tasked to be Gemini's personal assistant, and remembers how impressed the inspirational speakers were with BAYS.
"All the speakers were really fascinated with our work," Guardado, a self-identified Latino gay man, said. "Raja even tweeted and Facebook-posted that BAYS is a group of teenagers that are doing adult jobs. And we're doing it eloquently and getting a lot of praise. Even though we are young, we are truly making a difference."
All the speakers donated their time to the one-day event, which cost BAYS $4,000 of its annual $10,000 budget.
BAYS also organizes a Day of Action, which pairs up Bay Area GSA high school students with LGBT organizations. For one day a year, the students volunteer at assigned LGBT organizations. About 70 youth participated in this year's Day of Action in February, and had the opportunity to network, learn about specific LGBT causes, and see firsthand how a nonprofit functions internally.
Organizations across the state have opened their doors to BAYS' Day of Action, and have included the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, Equality California's headquarters in Los Angeles, San Jose's Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center, Concord's Rainbow Community Center, the Gay and Lesbian Elderly Home in Los Angeles, and Project Open Hand in San Francisco.
A third and currently evolving facet of BAYS is called the Middle School Safety Initiative. While it hasn't been implemented yet, the initiative will send local high school students into middle schools to educate and interact with youth in an effort to educate about bullying.
"Many recent studies have shown that the average coming-out age is actually 13 �" middle school," Galisatus said. "It's very much ingrained in middle school culture that 'gay' is an insult. We're hoping to change that culture, improve the lives of students, create safer school environments, and show them they're not alone."
The program is currently in research and development stages to determine what middle school students know, what resources are available to them, and what kind of curriculum will have maximum impact. Galisatus hopes to have BAYS members assigned to middle schools by the 2014 school year.
"One of the beauties of our youth-led model is that this program really came from the board," he said. "Many of us had difficult experiences in middle school and we've recognized there's not enough being done to support those kids."
Guardado is one of those board members that endured teasing and hopes that BAYS will enable him to make someone else's middle school experience less traumatic.
"I joined BAYS to put down LGBT bullying because I had a very dark time when I was younger," Guardado said. "I didn't have any gay youth leaders to look up to. Through BAYS, I can now empower someone else's life."
Galisatus had always wanted to be involved in San Francisco's Pride celebration �" he just didn't think it would come so soon, or with such recognition. He remembers seeing the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence when he was younger, never thinking that Sister Roma, who was a Pride grand marshal last year, would one day be on the advisory board of an organization he would co-found and lead.
This spring, Galisatus was named best youth activist under 25 in the Bay Area Reporter's Best of the Gays readers' poll.
"This has been an incredible ride," he said. "It's amazing to be recognized for empowering youth to engage with and make a difference in their communities �" to really push against and fight the systems of oppression that exists today. It feels overwhelming."