Youth Rally Presents Many Concerns

By Meaghan Corson — 10/02/10
Hundreds joined together at the One Nation’s youth rally. The younger crowd is interested in the same issues as much any other age group. Equal rights, education, and jobs were their main concerns.
Allison Gill is a Public Policy Associate for the Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN). She emphasized how her group wants legislation to create equal rights.
“It’s important for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgendered) community to come and show their support for this action and show that progress needs to be made and Congress needs to take action.”
Gill specifically mentioned students within the gay and lesbian community can feel unsafe. “There’re terrible problems in education. Students are being bullied, the suicide rate is incredibly high, especially for LGBT students.”
The Student Nondiscrimination Act and the State School Improvement Act are acts she wants legislatures to focus on. These acts would help all students including LGBT students. Gill said, “These bills have stalled out. And we need to take action.”
Educational issues were not only connected to discrimination concerns, but also to the need for more jobs. Tuskegee University Student Marc McMillan made that connection. “We’re here fighting for jobs because by the time we graduate it’s hard to get jobs.”
He said that the wealthy needs to help. “We don’t have the money. We don’t have the resources. They need to give back.” Collectively, students at the youth rally are worried about landing a job after graduating.