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Overcast Helping LGBTQ teens see the light in life
Hewlett Harbor residents host Pride for Youth’s Summer Night on Saturday
Hewlett Harbor residents Michael Serao and Fidel Abreu will be hosting Pride for Youth’s Summer Night at their home June 10.
Based in Bellmore, Pride for Youth has served and advocated for young LGBTQ people in Queens, and Nassau and Suffolk counties since 1993. Pete Carney, the organization’s director, describes this event as, “a fundraiser slash pride celebration.”
Serao says that he and his husband have been supporting with Pride for Youth for a bit over a year, and that they chose to host the event because, “They don’t really get the exposure that they deserve.”
With Serao and Abreu underwriting the entire event, “Every dollar goes directly to the services Pride for Youth provides,” Carney said.
Those services include community education programs, HIV testing, connections to HIV care, counseling and support groups for LGBTQ youth, including transgender and Spanish-speaking immigrant youths who are particularly vulnerable. Carney says that they serve 400 young people per week and that many of them return week after week.
The organization will also be presenting their third annual Groundbreaker Awards to documentary filmmaker Brendan Fay and former NYPD officer Thomas Verni for the work they’ve done with Pride for Youth and the LGBTQ community.
Verni spent nearly 22 years in the NYPD, even serving as the citywide LGBT liaison. He worked with hate crime victims who would often feel uncomfortable reporting incidents to the police and enhanced the training police recruits received.
“The readings they’d get [about LGBTQ issues] were about three pages long and 20 years out of date… Over six months that went from three pages to three dozen,” Verni said.
He said that when he first began, the NYPD did not have any policies concerning people who are transgender, and that it took four years but he was able to help change nearly a dozen regulations regarding transgender victims and suspects.
Since retiring in 2013, Verni has worked closely with Pride for Youth, focusing on interactions with the police. “I want to inform kids about both their rights and responsibilities when dealing with the police,” he said. “I know what they’re dealing with from a personal standpoint. “I want to help get them to the point where they can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
When he found out he would be honored at this event he was “kind of floored.” “Some people do this stuff because they’re hoping for an award,” Verni said. “If that’s what motivates you it’s better than nothing, but I’ve never seen it from that angle.”
Tickets are available on Pride for Youth’s website — www.prideforyouth.org —at $100 per person. Verni hopes that people will help because, “This is the only place some of these kids can go for these services … you can give something knowing a number of kids will benefit, and in some cases you may save lives.”
