Young Out Here (YOH) is a gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer youth community group based in Singapore, the longest running non-profit volunteer group of its kind in Singapore.[1]
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Started in 2006 by four teenagers, Young Out Here started out as a support group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer youths aged 16 to 21, providing a safe and secular place for gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer youths to gather together and talk about issues related to what gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer youths would face in life. It was started as there was a lack of focus on youths in the community during that period of time. [2]
The first run of the support group started in January 2007 and ended in July 2007; subsequent runs have been conducted in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
Young Out Here used yOUTh as their organizational acronym until 2009, when it is simplified to "YOH". In this period, they also began their venture into organizing events, starting with Labels and Love, and began operating the group's blog. [3]
Young Out Here's core program remains to be the closed support group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer youths who are 16 to 21 years old.[4] The objective of the support group program is to provide gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer youths in Singapore a safe, secular, and inclusive environment for them to meet like-minded individuals, where they can build healthy relationships, build healthy self identities, and learn about the community at large.[5][6][7]
Each YOH run consists of 13 sessions, each covering various issues related to gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer youths.[8] Each session is limited to 10 to 15 participants with equal or close to equal number of males and females to provide a gender neutral environment.
Labels and Love was a forum and workshop organized by Young Out Here in March 2009, with the help of Oogachaga. The workshop involved a personal sharing of the experiences of a mother and her gay son. An approximate number of 40 participants turned up.[9][10][11]
Outrace, jointly organized by Young Out Here, Oogachaga and dirrtyremixes in August 2009 to coincide with the annual IndigNation. In Outrace, teams were set to compete against each other, racing to various LGBT related locations in Singapore, a la The Amazing Race. They had to overcome challenges and obstacles at each pit-stop. These were designed with educating the teams about Singapore's LGBT history in mind. The first team to arrive at the final pit-stop wins a prize.[12][13][14][15]
Ties that Bind was a workshop organized by Young Out Here in March 2011, with the help of Oogachaga. The theme of the workshop was Coming Out; as a lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or queer youth to family members. The objective was to create a platform for queer youths to discuss and share ideas pertaining to the theme, rather than the advocation of coming out, as participants each have different situations and comfort levels to work with.[16][17][18]
During Pinkdot 2011, Young Out Here set up a booth at Hong Lim Park in a project where people are invited to pen down their thoughts, identity, or a statement beginning with "I am". A photo of them is then taken and uploaded to Young Out Here's Facebook page.[19][20][21]
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