Published in the Bay Area Reporter
by Matthew S. Bajko
m.bajko@ebar.com

photo by Jane Cleland

A new union-backed effort aims to harness the power of queer youth in the fight for economic justice issues. Dubbed the Youth Organizing Project, it is an offshoot of the San Francisco chapter of Pride at Work, whose aim is to build coalitions between the labor movement and the LGBT community.

Union officials have hired two campaign organizers, both in their 20s and out of the closet, to network with the city’s queer youth and recruit them to work on both political campaigns and labor-endorsed initiatives. The project is focused primarily on queer youth, whether union members or not, between 16 and 25 years old.

“The goal is to build a base of queer youth activists who will get involved in social issues and political movements,” said Josue Arg�elles, 22, who was hired last month to work on the project.

Molly Goldberg, 23, began working for the local union SEIU last fall educating young voters about several measures on the November ballot. The queer activist said at first many people doubted she would be able to sign up young adults.

“People told us, ‘You’re crazy if you think you can get a bunch of young people to do precinct work.’ We knew where to find each other,” she said. “Within a month we had 30 new volunteers to do this stuff.”

The Vermont native said she signed on to help launch the Youth Organizing Project because she believes it can be successful.

“Not only are there a lot of young people in this city, they are looking for avenues to be engaged politically. But they aren’t finding it,” said Goldberg. “Anytime an election comes up, we want to make sure queer people come out for those issues that matter to us.”

A four-year resident of San Francisco, Arg�elles said he and his co-worker have been doing bar crawls through the Castro, South of Market, and Polk Gulch neighborhoods, looking for other young people to register to vote and educate them on how to get involved politically. They have also begun to network with gay-straight alliances in the public schools and to meet with gay groups on local college campuses.

He said so far the response “has been very favorable.”

“If you don’t have a hook for youth they are not going to invest any time in volunteering,” added Arg�elles, who identifies as gay.

Robert Haaland, co-chair of the local Pride at Work chapter, said the idea for the youth project was hatched six months ago when he and Claire Bohman , the other co-chair, attended a national conference for LGBT union members in September and noticed a lack of young people in attendance.

“There were very few members under 30,” recalled Haaland.

Upon returning to the Bay Area, the co-chairs decided to launch the youth project. They estimate it will cost $50,000 in its first year, and a fundraiser earlier this month raised $20,000. They hope to raise the remaining funds from additional donors and events, and see the youth project as something other Pride at Work chapters can duplicate.

“We are trying it out here in San Francisco and hope to replicate it nationally,” said Haaland.

Already, the two youth leaders are focused on gentrification concerns in the Polk Gulch area, housing needs for queer youth, and employment issues trans youth face. They are planning a gender-queer fashion show at the gay-friendly El Rio in the Mission and a Castro-focused get together in the coming months. For more information, visit http://www.prideatwork.org or e-mail Goldberg at mailto:mollyprideatwork@gmail.com.