LGBT+ Youth Summit

Lizzie and Jo took a group of young people to the first Proud Trust LGBT+ Youth Summit in June. They headed to Manchester for the day to the Kimpton Hotel to meet with 36 other youth groups and schools from across the country.

First, we had a Q&A session with some LGBT+ role models, including drag queen Cheddar Gorgeous, YouTuber Rowan Ellis, theatre maker Kenya Sterling and HIV activist Nathaniel Hall, which was fascinating to listen to as all four panellists had very different viewpoints.

Next, we had a session where the Proud Trust asked us to move from table to table answering questions they had about being an LGBT young person today on a piece of flip chart paper. Not only did everyone write amazing answers, but some people expressed their ideas through drawings, and then other groups wrote notes praising their art work. The last thing we did was talk about what we could do to make schools better. Each groups then made a protest sign to say how they wanted schools to change and then we had our own mini protest march.

The atmosphere for the whole day was so warm and supportive and everyone was complimenting other groups on their work. In breaks between activities we had dance breaks where everyone stood up and partied to songs like The Macarena and Cha Cha Slide, which got the energy in the room even higher.

“It was amazing! I met new friends, got epic gifts and overall people were nice. We can’t wait to go back next year”