ABOVE: Betty DeGeneres (L) and Zebra Coalition’s Robin Daily attending HRC’s fifth annual Time to THRIVE conference in Orlando. Photo courtesy Robin Daily.
ORLANDO | The Human Rights Campaign, in partnership with the National Education Association and the American Counseling Association, flocked to the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek Feb. 16-18 for the fifth annual Time to THRIVE conference which promotes safety, inclusion and well-being for LGBTQ youth.
This year’s conference was attended by more than 800 youth-serving professionals including teachers, school counselors, administrators, social workers, mental health providers, pediatricians, religious leaders, recreational athletic coaches and youth development staff.
The conference featured 65 unique workshops crafted to provide tools and best practices to the attendees to take back to their schools, offices and organizations in order to work with the LGBTQ youth.
“We always take an intersectional approach when holding Time to THRIVE,” says HRC deputy press secretary Allison Turner. “We try to embrace the fact that a child isn’t just their gender identity or sexual orientation. They have all these identifiers that could cause them to face discrimination differently.”
The three-day conference began just days after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting which left 17 people dead and 15 injured less than 200 miles south of Orlando in Parkland, Florida.
The conference opened remembering the 49 lives lost at the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, during which they held a moment of silence for the victims of the Parkland shooting.
HRC honored several extraordinary advocates during the conference including groundbreaking health care provider Dr. Ximena Lopez; 18-year-old transgender trailblazer Gavin Grimm; and LGBTQ ally, and mother of Ellen herself, Betty DeGeneres.
“I love these conferences,” DeGeneres says. “ I went to [HRC’s Time to THRIVE chair] Vinnie Pompei’s very first conference in San Diego. It was wonderful. I’ve been to Portland and Vegas and now here. I’m getting to be an old timer at these.”
DeGeneres says she continues to support and attend Time to THRIVE because it gets right to the people who can help the youth.
“It’s for educators, and who more important to realize how gay kids need to be protected?” she says. “Principals, counselors, teachers, administrators—they are all here for the kids.”
Among the organizations attending the conference was Central Florida’s Zebra Coalition. The organization not only hosted a youth panel but Community Engagement Coordinator Robin Daily held a presentation on the work Zebra does in Central Florida.
“Being able to do a presentation on coalition work and what we do at Zebra, and to share that information with other organizations, it’s really rewarding,” Daily says.
Zebra Coalition also worked with HRC to invite 100 youth from the Central Florida area to attend the final day of the conference free of charge to see what work the organizations were doing to educate their educators.
“I think it’s important to have educators and people from the industry here, but I really think it’s important for the youth themselves to be invited and see the work that is being done on their part. Some youth don’t even know what HRC is and what they do which amazes me,” Daily says. “They are helping us change laws and make policy. So [it’s important] for the youth to be here and learn what HRC does, and what Equality Florida does and see the work these organizations are doing behind the scenes that I don’t think a lot of them are even aware of.”
With the fifth annual conference wrapped up Pompei is already hard at work planning the next one.
“He told me as soon as this one is over he’ll start right away planning the one for next year in Anaheim, which I’m thrilled about because I live right up the road in Los Angeles,” DeGeneres says with a smile.
