Campus Pride & Time Out Youth present their annual awareness event on Sun, Feb 20 to "push the Queen City forward" on LGBT issues

(Charlotte, N.C.) -- Campus Pride and Time Out Youth will present LGBT advocate Judy Shepard at their annual awareness event “Believe in Youth” on Sunday, Feb. 20, 3 p.m., at Myers Park Baptist Church’s Heaton Hall, 1900 Queens Rd. The event is free to educators and youth; $15 suggested donation otherwise.

Right: Flyer for Judy Shepard's Campus Pride/Time Out Youth event. Click to enlarge.

Shepard, mother of slain hate crime victim Matthew Shepard and author of the new book, “Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed,” will speak to the audience with a special Q&A following. Special music will be provided by Charlotte’s One Voice Chorus. Following the event, there will be a VIP meet and greet with Judy Shepard at The Bar at 316, 316 Rensselaer Street, open to the public; $5 suggested donation.

The annual “Believe in Youth” event is being presented by the national, Charlotte-based Campus Pride, a nonprofit organization for student leaders and campus organizations working to create safer, more LGBT-friendly colleges and universities, and Time Out Youth, a local LGBT youth service and support organization working in the Charlotte area for 20 years.

“Campus Pride and Time Out Youth have partnered to bring Judy Shepard to Charlotte to shed light on the ongoing crisis that faces LGBT youth and community members both locally and across the country,” said Steve Bentley, executive director of Time Out Youth. “Judy’s amazing advocacy on behalf of LGBT people provides a unique perspective and a call to action for movement on LGBT equality.”

“In the past few years, our nation has come a long way in achieving progress for LGBT people – from federal hate crimes legislation to the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ LGBT Americans are finally starting to see more full equality,” said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride. “That progress, however, has yet to hit Charlotte. Though the Queen City has come a long way, our community has much further to go especially for youth. We hope Judy’s message will help push this city forward.”

Catapulted onto a national stage following the murder of her son, Matthew, in 1998, Shepard has dedicated her life to advocacy on behalf of LGBT people. Determined to prevent Matthew’s fate from befalling others, she established The Matthew Shepard Foundation. She and the foundation are ongoing educational partners with Campus Pride as well as have worked with several organizations from the Human Rights Campaign to Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

For more information about Campus Pride programs and services, visit www.CampusPride.org or email info@campuspride.org. For more information about Time Out Youth programs and services, visit www.TimeOutYouth.org or email info@timeoutyouth.org

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Civil rights leader and highly-acclaimed furniture designer Mitchell Gold
to speak about his book CRISIS and the toll based bigotry

Charlotte, NC, Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010 – The national, Charlotte-based Campus Pride (www.campuspride.org) and local Time Out Youth (www.Time Out Youth.org) have partnered for a joint fundraising event on Thursday, Feb 25 to bring attention to lesbian,gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and ally youth in the Charlotte area.The fundraiser will take place at 6 p.m. at Myers Park Baptist Church(1900 Queens Road) and then continue at 8 p.m. at Petra’s Piano Bar(1919 Commonwealth Avenue). No tickets are necessary; however, donations are encouraged.

Titled “Believe In Youth,” the one night only event will feature civil rights leader and author Mitchell Gold and his book "CRISIS: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing Up Gay In America." A resident of Hickory, NC, Gold is a nationally recognized leader in the furniture industry as well as the founder of Faith In America, a national nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of the harm caused to LGBT Americans by religion-based bigotry and prejudice.

Gold has been honored nationally for his work and most recently in 2009 received a "Visionary Award" from the Stonewall Foundation in New York for his work with Faith in America and for publishing his recent book CRISIS. The book has been hailed as an important tool for understanding the immense harm to LGBT people when prejudice, discrimination and violence toward them is given moral and religious approval.