Liam Finnegan wows the crowd with his passion and sense of humour at our BYTE ConneX speaker series in April.
Ever heard of BYTE club? We’re not surprised if you haven’t. It’s a program we launched last August with the idea of providing a safe, inclusive space for high school students to do, well, whatever they wanted. The idea behind BYTE club was that it would be self-directed. Under the guidance of BYTE facilitators, youth would decide what they wanted to talk about or what projects they wanted to work on. We thought they might be interested in university or climate change or sex, but we really didn’t know.
The project didn’t really take off. We provided food and the space and a few high-school students came from time to time, but we were often left sitting at our desks on BYTE club afternoons wondering where the heck everyone was. Maybe the idea was too broad or maybe we had the timing wrong or maybe everyone was just too busy.
Then we heard about Liam Finnegan, an openly gay local high school student. Liam was all over the news a few months ago when he spoke out about his school’s policy on homosexuality. The policy was posted to Vanier Catholic’s school’s website last October, calling homosexuality as “morally evil†and a “grave disorderâ€. Liam, for obvious reasons, was pretty ticked off about that.
We asked Liam to come speak about it at our BYTE ConneX speaker series in April and he agreed. We couldn’t have been more excited. Liam wowed the crowd with his charm, confidence and passion. And he was so funny. At the end of his presentation, Chris, BYTE’s Executive Director, asked Liam what we as an organization could do to support LGBT youth. Liam mentioned providing a safe space for LGBT youth to come together. You could almost see the lightbulb go on in Chris’ head: BYTE club.
Over the past several weeks Liam and a crew of classmates have been coming to BYTE and brainstorming just what they want to do for the new BYTE club. The club will include a focus on LGBT equality, but more than that, the idea is to create a sex positive, safe environment for all youth. We’re looking forward to bringing in guest speakers, doing workshops and taking the club in whatever direction it wants to go. It’s gearing up to be a fun, creative and progressive group.
The new BYTE club takes place Mondays from 4 pm-6 pm at our office, 2-407 Ogilvie Street, and anyone interested in joining is more than welcome to check it out.
Have other ideas how BYTE can support our youth LGBT community? Let us know by commenting on this story, or email communications@www.yukonyouth.com. We’d love to hear from you.