ORLANDO | The City of Orlando, Zebra Coalition and LGBTQ organizations across Central Florida celebrated LGBTQ youth with the fifth annual Orlando Youth Empowerment Summit at Valencia College’s West Campus on Oct. 19.
Dozens of LGBTQ youth, parents, guardians, community leaders and local educators spent the day learning about topics such as queer history, politics and health services to name a few. LGBTQ organizations including Equality Florida, Hope & Help, QLatinx, UCF’s LGBTQ+ Services, GLSEN, One Orlando Alliance and more held a information fair providing information to the youth on what each of them do for the community.
After a lunch provided by Second Harvest, attendees participated in a Lip Sync Battle and were treated to entertainment from violinist Jose Navarro, a powerful drag performance from Sorcha Mercy, spoken word by Kathryn Ross and stand-up comedy by Brianna Rockmore.
The Orlando Youth Empowerment Summit launched in 2014 from the City or Orlando to focuses on educating LGBTQ youth, ages 13-24, on a variety of topics such as healthcare, LGBTQ history, intersectionality, consent, religion, overcoming bullying and more.
For more information on the summit, visit OrlYES.org.
Photos by Jeremy Williams.
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