See how these young people are proud to be LGBT.
The "I Heart My Sexuality" campaign is being conducted by the IMPACT LGBT Health and Development Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The project aims to highlight the strengths of LGBTQ youth, instill pride in the community, and tell stories of healthy relationships.
We set up a video booth at the 2010 Chicago Pride Festival and asked people to write on a card why they "heart" or love their sexuality. The response was overwhelming, with over 200 cards completed. The cards were just released on the IMPACT website, allowing visitors to view the cards and read the inspiring and sometimes funny messages. The main goal of these cards is to share examples of why people are proud to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual. There were also cards completed by heterosexuals sharing why they are proud to be included or connected to the gay community. You can view some of the cards below, or go to the campaign page to view more.
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Dr. Brian Mustanski is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Institute for Juvenile Research and is an expert in LGBT health and development. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/bloggers/brian-mustanski-phd
Discussing all things related to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) health and development: from the biology of sexual orientation to talking to your family about sexuality to the pros and cons of the Internet in our romantic lives. by Dr. Brian Mustanski
I Heart My Sexuality
is a video project sponsored by IMPACT. The project aims to highlight the strengths of LGBTQ youth, instill pride in the community, and tell stories of healthy relationships.
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Press release |PDF|
Brian Mustanski, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology
Director, IMPACT Program
1747 W. Roosevelt Rd (MC/747)
Chicago, IL 60608
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Allen Ratliff, IMPACT Program Coordinator.
gratliff@psych.uic.edu Ph. 312.355.5878
UIC IMPACT Program launches video campaign to promote health of LGBT youth.
The IMPACT Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago is announcing the release of its new educational campaign entitled “I Heart My Sexuality”. The campaign is a series of videos gathered from interviews in the community that highlight the strengths of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, instill pride in the community, and tell stories of healthy relationships. The IMPACT team set up a video booth at the 2010 Chicago Pride Festival and Dyke March and asked people to share their stories. The videos were created in partnership with BeyondMedia Education, an award winning non-profit organization dedicated to using media for social change.
According to Dr. Brian Mustanski, the Director of the IMPACT Program, “we created these videos because our research with LGBT young people shows that they want to learn more about healthy same-sex relationships. Our program focuses on promoting sexual health in young people, which is more than just the absence of diseases like HIV. Being healthy also means having positive romantic relationships and accepting ones sexuality.”
The first set of videos, set to launch September 21st 2010, explore relationships, being single, and the important of family and community. With over a hundred interviews of LGBT young people, the videos show a diverse group of people discussing why they “heart” their sexuality.
In addition to videos, the IMPACT team collected nearly two hundred post cards on which people wrote positive and encouraging notes regarding why they love their sexual orientation. The post cards were just released on the IMPACT website, allowing users to review the cards and read the inspiring and sometimes funny messages.
The I Heart My Sexuality campaign will be hosted on the IMPACT program website and YouTube page. Later stages of the campaign will include interviews with same-sex couples and will also be hosted at the IMPACT website. To view the I Heart My Sexuality campaign, check out www.impactprogram.org after September 21st!
The IMPACT Program is in the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago and conducts translational research on LGBT Health and Development. By “translational,” we mean that we seek to identify health issues, understand factors that put people at risk or protect them, and turn that knowledge into programs that advance the health of LGBT people and communities.
IMPACT Program’s internet-based education and outreach programs are funded in part by the William T. Grant Foundation.
Phone (312) 996-9505 • Fax (312) 413-0036 • Email bmustanski@psych.uic.edu • www.impactprogram.org
About IMPACT
The IMPACT Program was founded and is directed by Dr. Brian Mustanski. We conduct translational research on LGBT Health and Development. By “translational,” we mean that we seek to identify health issues, understand factors that put people at risk or protect them, and turn that knowledge into programs that advance the health of LGBT people and communities. “Translate” also means that we try to explain some of the fascinating but complicate language of science into lessons that everyone can benefit from. The study of LGBT development is also part of our mission. We seek to understand how sexual orientation and gender identity develop because we believe they are core parts of human identity and worthy of understanding. The IMPACT program actively collaborates with community based organization. We feel privileged to have been awarded over $7 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health and major foundations such as the William T Grant Foundation and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
The IMPACT Program is based in the Institute for Juvenile Research, which has been a leading force in providing a broad range of innovative mental health services to children, adolescents and their families in Chicago for over a century, as well as a leader in research in prevention and intervention in the fields of child psychiatry and child psychology. The Institute is based in the Department of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine. The Department is consistently ranked as one of the top in NIH funding and the College of Medicine is the largest medical school in the country. The University of Illinois at Chicago is the largest university in Chicago and one of the most diverse. It is the home to an interdisciplinary cadre of faculty conducting research and scholarship of relevance to the LGBT community.
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