Mass. Youth Commission to meet in Brockton

The Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth will meet Dec. 17 at the Holiday Inn in Brockton, the latest in a series of meetings held in different regions of the state to conduct commission business and meet with local youth and advocates to assess the situation of LGBT youth in Massachusetts. Thus far the commission has held meetings in Boston, Hyannis and Worcester, and in March the commission will hold a meeting in Springfield.

Jason Smith, chair of the commission, said a group of local youth will address the commission at the Brockton meeting and talk about the issues facing LGBT youth in their city. Prior to the public meeting the commission will also hold a private discussion forum with local LGBT and allied youth to hear firsthand about their experiences at schools, in their families and in their neighborhoods. The commission held a similar event at the Worcester meeting in October that brought out about 20 young people involved in local gay/straight alliances.

The commission will also be covering a wide range of business in its meeting, including an update on the search for a paid director to manage the work of the commission and ease the workload of some of the commissioners, who are volunteers.

"We're in the process of collecting applications. We'll start reviewing applications on the fifteenth of this month ... and we hope to have someone hired by early next year," said Smith. The position is funded through next summer, and one of the jobs of the director is to secure funding to allow the position to continue past the summer.

Commissioners will also elect a commission chair during the meeting. Smith said he is seeking reelection and that he is the only person on the commission who has announced he will run.

The meeting will include discussion of LGBT youth funding in the fiscal year 2009 budget and the state of the Department of Education's Safe Schools program. Commissioners will also vote on a slate of new candidates to fill the slots of commissioners who have resigned. Smith said he was unsure how many prospective commissioners were on the slate, but many of them help the commission achieve its goal of increasing representation of various communities, including LGBT youth themselves.

"Most of the commissioners that have applied and that we're looking at are youth or potential commissioners who are transgender, and there's also a lot of people representing Western Mass," said Smith, who added that there are commissioners from southern Mass. and Cape Ann as well. "We're definitely looking to regionalize."

The Brockton meeting of the Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth will be held Dec. 17 at the Holiday Inn, 195 Westgate Dr., from 7 to 9 p.m. The meeting is open to the public.