The Hetrick Martin Institute Inc

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The Hetrick-Martin Institute creates a safe and supportive environment in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, ages 12 to 21, can reach their full potential.

HMI Hosts Most Successful Emery Awards Ever!!!
Tuesday night, we hosted our 24th Annual Emery Awards! With the help of attendees, donors, and supporters from across the country, The Hetrick-Martin Institute raised nearly 1.3 million dollars. That makes this our most successful Emery Awards yet!
What an enchanting evening it was, too. Wendy Williams played host to a packed house of nearly 900 attendees. We honored Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post, fashion designer Marc Ecko, and Gleecreator Ryan Murphy as champions within the LGBTQ community. We were also graced by presentations from Suze Orman, Cheyenne Jackson, Joel Klein, and Bethenny Frankel, and a live acoustic performance of Somewhere Over The Rainbow by Glee star Matthew Morrison. The highlight of the evening was a poignant performance by our very own Youth Advisory Board as well as a heartfelt memorial to the young people we have lost.

Because you are reading this, there is hope. Hope to stop a horrific pattern; hope to quell the explosion of homophobic violence against innocent young people; hope to staunch this social travesty that now manifests far too often. In recent days, weve seen far too many young people become tragic victimsfor simply living their lives. Monday, October 11th was National Coming Out Day. On that day, we paused and asked: What are our youth coming out to? Simply put, they are coming out to a culture of stigma, of bias, and of fear .
In the past 2 months, there have been nearly 10 recorded youth suicides. The common thread? All were motivated because people could not stand the idea of someone acting and feeling differently than them: because these youth were perceived to be LGBTQ. To say this is a tragedy is an understatement; to deny this is not indicative of a larger, systemic problem is foolhardy.
This cannot be the world we make for our children. A world in which young people are driven to suicide over the humiliation, the stigma of being seen as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or even questioning, is not a world in which we have the luxury to sit idle, doing nothing. We know that immediate action is needed.
What if each of these young people weve recently lost had reached us? What if the terrible isolated valleys of depression and the remote islands of isolation were not so vast, dark, or distant? What if these beautiful individuals, like the thousands each year who reach out to us, were able to find us, and we in turn were able to provide an ear, a kind word, friendship, and hope?
Last year, over 1,500 youth passed through the doors of The Hetrick-Martin Institute where they found a place of acceptance, free of judgment, bullying, or violence. Further, we provided resources and support to young people and the caring adults seeking to nurture them, from all parts of our global community, who had reached out to Hetrick-Martin in search of answers. Yet, clearly, our reach must grow. Beautiful young people killing themselves over LGBTQ bullying is something we cannot abide; even one LGBTQ-related suicide is too much to tolerate.
In the month of October we celebrate National Coming Out Day, a day in which to celebrate openly identifying as LGBTQ. For so many youth, this is not a day of celebration, but one of fear. We have accomplished much, but we still have so long to go before youth can openly express themselves without violence, without bias, and without fear. Through our onsite services and world-wide community outreach to LGBTQ youth through our HMI To Go Program, we are all part of the solution. Whether you have given recently, or would like to begin by donating today, we thank you for helping us to help those so clearly in need.

All Our Children: Strategies to Prevent Homelessness, Strengthen Services, and Build Support for LGBTQ Youth

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