LGBT Youth Scotland is a Scottish

youth organisation The following is a list of youth organizations. A youth organization is a type of organization with a focus upon providing activities and socialization for minors. In this list, most organizations are international unless noted otherwise. ...

dedicated to the inclusion of

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with fema ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...

and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

(

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

) young people from 13 to 25 year of age in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. It was established in November 1989 as the Stonewall Youth Project by members of the LGBT community in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. In April 2003 Stonewall Youth Project became a national organisation and was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee with charitable status under the name by which it is known today.

History

LGBT Youth Scotland was originally founded in

in 1989 as Stonewall Youth Project. In 2003 it was renamed as LGBT Youth Scotland and became a national organisation for young LGBT people.

Organisation and funding

LGBT Youth Scotland is based in

and also has offices in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

and

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from th ...

. James Rennie was appointed its first chief executive in 2003, having worked with the organisation from 1997 to 2008. Rennie was dismissed from his post after a

Lothian and Borders Police Lothian and Borders Police was the territorial police force for the Scottish council areas of the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian between 1975 and 2013. The force's headquarters were in Fettes ...

investigation (''Operation Algebra'') and trial found him guilty of running Scotland's largest paedophile network using company resources and possessing

child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ch ...

in 2009. The organisation distanced itself from Rennie and subsequently appointed Fergus McMillan to the position who served for eleven years from 2008 to 2019. Since September 2019, the organisation has been led by chief executive Mhairi Crawford. The organisation is mainly funded by the state, with over £700,000 of its £1.2 million 2018-19 income coming from the Scottish Government, local councils and the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

. Non-state donors include BBC Children in Need and the

Big Lottery Fund The National Lottery Community Fund, legally named the Big Lottery Fund, is a non-departmental public body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery for "good causes". Since 2004 it has awarded over £9 billion to ...

. It employs 42 staff.

Programmes

Services provided by LGBT Youth Scotland include: Direct Services for LGBT young people including support groups, advice and support, events and volunteering, National Projects including

LGBT History Month LGBT History Month is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. It was founded in 1994 by Missouri high-school history teacher Rodney W ...

, Policy work, Research, Training for Professionals. In November 2008, LGBT Youth Scotland began providing volunteering opportunities for those over the age of 26 as a part of the National Development Team's Capacity Building Project. Unlike many youth-steered organisations, LGBT Youth Scotland is not completely peer led, and relies upon experienced volunteers and paid staff to keep services running. The organisation is one of the largest employers in Scotland within the LGBT sector with over 30 full-time paid staff members, with many more part-time staff and volunteers. LGBT young people are involved directly by their formation and support of Scotland's LGBT National Youth Council (NYC). The NYC is made up of elected youth representatives from all across Scotland, and is responsible for gathering the views, issues and aspirations of Scotland's LGBT youth population in order to feed them back to the people who can make a real difference, such as MSPs and local authorities. It brings together youth groups as well as individuals under one umbrella organisation. The service users elect two members of the

Scottish Youth Parliament The Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) is a youth-led, democratic organisation which aims to represent the young people of Scotland. The SYP is made up of around 166 democratically-elected representatives aged 14–25 from across Scotland. Represe ...

. In 2004 the youth volunteers of the organisation won the Philip Lawrence Award for Community Safety. LGBT Youth Scotland's Charter encourages and enables organisations and, since 2014, schools to proactively include LGBTI people in every aspect of their work - with the aim of protecting staff and demonstrating a commitment to the provision of high quality services to customers, students, and service users.

References

External links

LGBT Youth Scotland Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lgbt Youth Scotland LGBT organisations in Scotland LGBT culture in Scotland Youth organisations based in Scotland LGBT youth organisations based in the United Kingdom Youth councils 1989 establishments in Scotland Organisations based in Edinburgh LGBT culture in Edinburgh LGBT culture in Glasgow

History

Organisation and funding

Programmes

See also

References

External links