Conference for GLBT youth service providers to include public lecture by former surgeon general in July

By Jayne Spencer

'GLBT teens face harassment from their peers and very often from their own families. The effects of this are amplified in rural areas, which offer few options for talking about their alienation, let alone examples of acceptance. Every community should have at least one identifiable person able to help a GLBT teen in trouble. This conference addresses that goal.'

–Doug Bauder

Elder's address is scheduled at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, July 20, at Alumni Hall, Indiana Memorial Union; tickets to the general public will be available for $20.

Sponsored by IU's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Support Services (GLBTSS), the conference is geared for teachers, counselors, principals, social workers, mental health professionals and youth group leaders from the Midwest to the campus, especially those who work in under-served rural settings, to explore a range of topics related to GLBT youth service provision.

Conference participation will provide continuing education credits through the International Association for Continuing Education and Training.

A grant awarded to the GLBTSS in April by the Allstate Foundation is helping to underwrite the conference. The foundation, which works in concert with Allstate Insurance Company, supports programs that promote tolerance, inclusion and diversity; safe and vital communities; and economic empowerment.

Elders is among a number of nationally recognized experts on GLBT youth who will be presenters. Others are Mark Pope of the University of Missouri at St. Louis, president-elect of the American Counseling Association; Terry Tafoya of the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center, University of Washington; Kathryn Brown, a sex educator with the health and wellness office of the IU Health Center in Bloomington; Stephanie Sanders, associate director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, headquartered at IU Bloomington; Bill Yarber of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention and Research, a project of Indiana, Purdue and Texas A & M universities, headquartered at IU Bloomington; Ann Symons, former president of the American Library Association; and Dan Woog, author on GLBT youth topics and a past National Youth Coach of the Year.

Presenters will offer a wide variety of workshops, roundtables and lectures intended to build the competence and confidence professionals need to assist GLBT youth successfully. Conference sessions will address such diverse topics as legal issues for schools and youth workers, substance abuse and suicide prevention, HIV/STD prevention, homelessness, safe schools, library policies, Internet outreach and career counseling."GLBT teens face harassment from their peers and very often from their own families,” said Doug Bauder, coordinator of IU GLBT Student Support Services. “The effects of this are amplified in rural areas, which offer few options for talking about their alienation, let alone examples of acceptance. Every community should have at least one identifiable person able to help a GLBT teen in trouble. This conference addresses that goal."

For more information about the conference, go to this Web site http://www.iub.edu/~glbtyou
or contact Bauder at 812-855 4252; E-mail dbauder@indiana.edu.