Sarah's Give OUT Day Fundraiser for OutCasting

This Pride Month, I’m raising money for OutCasting Media, an organization that produces public radio LGBTQ youth programs. OutCasting Media is trying to build monthly support.

I’m doing this as part of Give OUT Day, a month-long fundraising campaign culminating on June 30, the only national day of giving for the LGBTQ community. Give OUT Day is June 30, and donations during all of Pride Month count toward my goal. OutCasting Media could earn thousands in additional prize money if they get the most donors!

Thank you so much for your support!

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For our LGBTQ youth participants, OutCasting is an oasis, a safe space where they can make friends with similar interests and discuss their LGBTQ identities and the issues they face.  It empowers them by enabling them to explore and research these issues and talk about them to listeners reached by the public radio stations that carry OutCasting as well as our online listeners.  It helps them to grow into their identities with self-assurance and pride.

Our straight allies learn about LGBTQ identities and issues by discussing them in depth with our LGBTQ participants and guests — and discover that being an ally means much more than just stating their support.

We go in-depth, providing deep insights into issues that are often complicated.

We provide a forum for the discussion of issues that are rarely mentioned in the mainstream media — 

• religious liberty as a justification for anti-LGBTQ discrimination
• coming out and being outed by friends
• issues faced by trans people in sports
• bullying and suicide prevention
• activism
• dating while queer in high school and healthy teen relationships
• conversion therapy
• marriage equality and the backlash against it
• the importance of straight allies
• medical transition for trans youth
• gay parenting
• bi erasure
• the LGBTQ civil rights movement
• connecting youth with LGBTQ history
• why LGBTQ kids have to lie
• how the media portray us and why it matters
• minority stress in LGBTQ people
• fighting anti-trans discrimination in schools
• LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers
• gay parenting
• LGBTQ issues in education and religion
• how parents' expectations can change when their kids are LGBTQ
• agender,  intersex, asexuality, non-binary
• and a whole lot more! 

OutCasting provides a unique opportunity for LGBTQ youth and their allies, empowering them and giving them a voice that they would not have otherwise.

LGBTQ youth are often at risk — sometimes in unstable family situations because of their identity; sometimes in physical danger in school and elsewhere; and statistically at higher risk of suicide.  They often lack the information and resources that enable them to protect themselves, and and it's essential to provide support and nurturing for them in a safe environment.

As an activity, OutCasting also provides our young producers with training, education, and experience in the real-world environment of producing nationally distributed public radio programs.

As a creator of public radio programming, OutCasting provides information and perspective to listeners all over the country.  Because it is aimed at — and heard by — not only the LGBTQ audience but a broad spectrum of the general public, it can help create a more stable and accepting environment for LGBTQ people by shedding light on issues that are unfortunately still divisive.

And by presenting in-depth exploration of LGBTQ issues, we also help LGBTQ youth — listeners and participants alike — envision a positive future for themselves.  This kind of thing changes lives.

Listen online at OutCastingMedia.org or wherever you find your podcasts.