LGBT Community Service -- Pro Mo’

These New York–based LGBT community groups welcome the financial contributions and hands-on efforts of public supports. They particularly benefit from professional members, as well as services volunteered by professionals.

•    Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, addresses anti-LGBT prejudice in schools with educators, policy makers, community leaders, and students. Its website ThinkB4YouSpeak, National Day of Silence and No Name-Calling Week events, Training of Trainers program, and its participating Gay-Straight Alliances underscore the problems of bullying and harassment, and work toward changing minds and rulebooks. As part of its efforts, GLSEN maintains an educator network.

•    Identity House
Identity House provides peer counseling and group support to LGBT people who are struggling with coming out, relationships, and feelings of alientation. This all-volunteer organization performs weekly walk-in services at the Center and operates workshops and conferences. In addition to enrolling peer counselors and administration volunteers, Identity House boasts member therapists, to whom Walk-In Center participants are referred. (When a client is referred to a therapist, the therapist donates 30 perfect of the therapist's fee for the first six months of treatment; if the therapist's fee is less than $50, he or she only donates the first session fee to Identity House.) Therapists also volunteer by participating in 12-week supervision groups, workshops and trainings for Identity House members and the public, and orientations and screenings.

•    Lambda Legal
With headquarters in New York and four regional offices, Lambda Legal is committed to achieving full civil rights for LGBT people and for people living with HIV. The group runs public education campaigns, and pursues litigation at the state and federal levels regarding job equality, parenting rights, healthcare access, immigration, military service, and other issues that can have wide-reaching impact. Lambda Legal runs petition and other action campaigns online, and its national network of cooperating attorneys involves legal-professional as well as student volunteers.

•    Live Out Loud
Live Out Loud organizes panel discussions at which successful LGBT professionals and community leaders share their stories with LGBT youth. In addition to these after-school programs, Live Out Loud recently started The Homecoming Project, which pairs these adult volunteers with their hometown high schools. At its annual gala the group presents a scholarship to students who embody the proactive and proud values of Live Out Loud, which honorees may then apply to higher academic or vocational training.  

•    Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund
TLDEF pursues transgender equal rights through test-case litigation, provides free and low-cost legal name changes to community members, and runs the Transgender Health Initiative of New York to improve healthcare access for transgender people. Despite its limited budget, the group also champions public education and policy and provides direct legal services.