Public campaign will reach out to young people suffering homophobic bullying

Public transportation riders are in for a more colorful commute come Thursday.

That's the day the city's only independent organization serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youths launches its first public advertising campaign, with 100 posters on SEPTA buses and subway cars.

The Attic Youth Center, an after-school LGBT sanctuary in Center City, is taking its message, "It's OK to Be You," to the streets in an attempt to reach young people suffering from homophobic bullying.

"When we first got started, we didn't do so much [advertising] as a way to kind of protect our kids," says Attic's executive director, Carrie Jacobs, who founded the nonprofit organization in 1993. "But as things have somewhat changed, we've been able to do more and more marketing."

The campaign is the latest effort by various organizations to speak to the public about LGBT issues.

In May, Philadelphia School District elementary school counselors spent a day learning about LGBT issues from Welcoming Schools, an arm of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The day before, a study appeared in the Journal of School Health showing that LGBT adolescents who are bullied in school because of their identity are at greater risk as adults for depression, suicide, and contracting HIV.

About 85 percent of LGBT students were harassed at school in 2008, according to a 2009 report by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a 40-chapter national nonprofit group focused on bringing awareness of LGBT issues to the classroom. It has a chapter in Camden.

The health report claims to be the first study on the personal effects of homophobic bullying, but the findings were not news to the city's LGBT community.

The Attic's ad campaign is fueled by a $10,000 grant from the city Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services.

The initiative comes after a series of teen suicides last fall cast a spotlight on gay bullying. The most noticed was the death of Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his encounter with another man was secretly videoed by his roommate and shared on Twitter.