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LGBTQ+ youth find support at Lambert House in Seattle
By Paris Jackson
June is Pride Month. This week we’re exploring many facets of the LGBTQ+ community, and the challenges and triumphs of individuals and families.
One agency in Seattle, the Lambert House, continues to be a safe space for hundreds of LGBTQ+ youth from ages 10 through 22.
In recent years, anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across the country has garnered a lot of media and federal administration attention.
The Lambert House’s executive director says Seattle is relatively protected, and historically a very supportive environment.
“Nevertheless, we had eight anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in the Washington state legislature. None of them were passed into law. But youth that are growing up here are aware that there are people, including local leaders, elected officials, who want to see them disappear, who want to see them invisible, who want them not to exist. So that's a very stressful environment in which to be growing up,” said, Ken Shulman, Lambert House LGBTQ Youth Center Executive Director.
Shulman says he’s aware of families moving to Washington state from red states to better protect their trans children. There is significant emphasis for youth who walk through the doors of The Lambert House to feel safe.
“In terms of hope, what Lambert has provides them is a peer group that's large; 723 youth last year in our programs. So you're going to find a friend if you're looking for a friend and often more than one, maybe a group of friends that you become part of, and that decreases the likelihood that they're going to turn to alcohol or other drugs as a coping mechanism for the stress of being in this minority. It decreases their depression and their sense of loneliness, their sense of hopelessness, their sense of never being loved,” Shulman said.
Shulman says more than 100 volunteers, most of whom are LGBTQ+ or allies, span the spectrum of backgrounds, education, income and careers. He says they are important role models for the youth they serve.
