Today, I attended the first annual summit on Creating Safer Schools to Improve School Outcomes for LGBTQ Youth. I would first like to thank all of the organizers for making the event happen, it was quite a success and I look forward to attending (or helping out) next year!

This summit was co-sponsored by Equality Cincinnati, Equality Ohio, the Human Rights Campaign, The Family Violence Prevention Project, the Council on Child Abuse, Centerpoint Health Centers, GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network), and Miami University's Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs. As you can see, quite a few organization worked hard to have this event, and the superior quality was apparent!

I would like to thank all of the presenters as well. To highlight just a few, I would first like to thank Ed Mullen, the Executive Director of Equality Ohio. He is a very busy man and his presence was very much appreciated. Thanks, also, to Kristin Shrimplin, who was an instrumental organizer for the summit. I would also like to thank the three high school students who sat on the student panel, who showed great courage and pride in being able to share their experiences. A special thanks also goes out to GLSEN who certified all of the attendees as LGBTQ Safe Sites.

This summit was intended for school-age youth educators and administrators (aka: High School and Middle School teachers/principals/guidance counselors/etc.). I attended in order to be in the loop on what is being taught to our educators, as well as being able to network for future organizing efforts. Here, I will summarize what was said and discuss the main points.

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