Kaleidoscope Youth Center offers young LGBTQ+ Ohioans support, community

For C.R., finding Kaleidoscope Youth Center has been life changing.

A little over a year ago, C.R., whose name has been abbreviated to protect his identity, was shelter-hopping in Cincinnati after being kicked out of his family’s home. “The shelters were a good short-term solution so that I wasn’t on the streets, but they don’t provide much help in securing anything long-term,” he said. C.R. knew he couldn’t stay in the shelters indefinitely, but owing to safety concerns, returning home wasn’t an option either.

That’s when a friend told him about Kaleidoscope Youth Center. A Columbus-based nonprofit organization, KYC provides support, resources, and opportunities to LGBTQ+ youth aged 12 to 24.

After reaching out to KYC, C.R. was quickly accepted into the Emergency Housing Program, which granted him a safe place to live for free while he worked toward getting on his feet. And while he originally sought temporary housing assistance, he also found a welcoming, inclusive community at the center upon arriving in Columbus.

“For over a year, I went to pretty much all of their programs every day,” C.R. said. “Moving to a new place where I didn’t know anybody, Kaleidoscope really helped me get to know queer people of a similar age.”

Once C.R.’s housing situation stabilized, he was able to invest energy into improving other areas of his well being, participating in behavioral health and therapy services offered through the center. He soon became a member of KYC’s youth leadership team, building valuable skills to assist and empower other queer youth of color like himself.

“Last year, we did a lot of work on self-advocacy and different ways of taking care of yourself,” he said. “This year, the focus is more on community advocacy.”

This shift comes at a crucial time. With the state’s Republican legislators continuing to pass regressive, anti-LGBTQ+ laws that make Ohio an increasingly hostile place for queer youth, advocacy is becoming more important than ever.

Over the past year, the state legislature has passed a wave of bills chipping away at the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. House Bill 68, which bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth and prohibits trans student athletes from participating in women’s sports, took effect last April. House Bill 183, which prevents students in grades K-12 from using the bathrooms that align with their gender identities, was signed into law in November and went into effect in February. And in January, Gov. Mike DeWine approved House Bill 8, requiring educators to out students to their parents.

“There’s a lot of reaction right now to what we’re seeing at the federal level with executive orders and conversations about DEI going away, but we are already feeling the impact on our young people and our organization at the state level,” said Amanda Erickson, KYC’s senior director of programs and operations. “We’ve had an anti-trans legislature, along with school districts that are taking it upon themselves to over-comply in advance with what they think might happen in the future, for two to three years now.”

Although recent legal changes have been aimed at school-aged LGBTQ+ students, the larger political and cultural shifts that have taken place since the election have started to impact young adults such as C.R., too.

“Much of the current legislation targets youth under 18 or 19, so my access to things hasn’t changed,” said C.R., who just turned 21. “But because there’s such a target on trans people, I’ve been more affected just going out into the world. A lot of people say things to me when I ride the bus. I’m a very visibly queer person, and it feels more dangerous to go out and do things.”

The shifting landscape of LGBTQ+ rights has potentially devastating consequences for the community’s youngest members. But even as some organizations back down on publicly supporting queer and trans folks under this political pressure, KYC’s commitment to the youths it serves hasn’t wavered.

“A lot of anti-trans rhetoric and legislation stems from a societal belief that minors can’t make their own decisions, and we fundamentally don’t agree with that,” Erickson said. “We think that young people are the experts in their own experiences and should have some control over their own futures.”

As Ohio’s largest organization specifically focused on LGBTQ+ youth, KYC works hard to empower young people while meeting a diverse range of needs. The organization’s drop-in center provides a safe space for young people to hang out, along with resources such as art supplies and free wi-fi. The holistically based behavioral health program offers discussions on topics like healthy relationships, along with therapeutic activities such as gardening classes that are open to all. Meanwhile, affinity groups such as Genderscope (a non-cisgender discussion group) and QPOC (a forum for queer youth of color) focus on the needs of specific communities.

Participating in groups like Genderscope has helped give teens like Kyros a sense of belonging. Now 17 and a senior in high school, Kyros has been attending programs at the center since his 12th birthday, shortly after his mother discovered the group as a resource for his older sibling.

“Kaleidoscope is the most inclusive space I’ve ever been in,” said Kyros, whose last name has been withheld to protect his identity. “The staff goes out of their way to make it a safe space for everyone. Genderscope, in particular, has definitely helped me with having community as a trans person, especially in this climate.”

That’s something Kyros doesn’t take for granted in the current political atmosphere, where not all of the spaces he inhabits are equally welcoming. “I’ve been trying to ignore it and just focus on graduating high school,” Kyros said, “but it definitely feels like people are being given permission to be transphobic right now.”

And simply tuning out this growing discrimination isn’t always possible.

“My school only has a couple of gender-neutral bathrooms, and they’re nowhere near any of my classes,” Kyros said. “Throughout the entirety of high school, it’s been difficult for me to use the bathroom – I only have five minutes between classes – and it’s even harder now that I don’t have any other options.”

Feeling excluded in other spaces makes KYC’s emphasis on inclusion even more valuable to Kyros. “Being involved at the center is the main reason that I have friends currently,” he said. “The only other queer people in my life that I don’t know specifically through Kaleidoscope are in my family. Going there has helped me feel less alone.”

C.R. shared similar sentiments. “There’s a place for everyone at the center,” he said, calling specific attention to the quality of staff at KYC. “They’re all really affirming, and they care deeply about us.”

That sense of affirmation is a guiding principle at KYC. “One of our core values is that we trust youth to let us know what kind of support they need,” Erickson said. “We as adults are here to guide and support them, because as minors they need that also, but ultimately we get to listen to them and believe them when they tell us who they are and what they need.”

And while federal initiatives will likely continue to command a lion’s share of the public’s bandwidth, Erickson urged Ohioans to pay attention to what’s going on at the local level, as well. 

“I think that as we get distracted by what’s coming out of the White House, it will be easier for folks to miss things that are happening at places like their local school boards and city councils,” she said. “We really need folks to know what’s going on in their own communities. If you see something that you don’t like, speak up, fight back.”