By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus held its semi-annual full-body conference Aug. 9 in conjunction with the Chicago Department of Public Health. Billed as “Me and Youth: Healing and Teaching…An engaging dialogue about and between youth and those who care,” the meeting was ostensibly to discuss the boundaries that need to be in place between youth in need of community services and the adults charged with providing them.

Many attendees felt, however, that the gathering at CDPH’s training facility, 1642 N. Besly, failed to address why the subject was being raised at this time.

Two days prior to the meeting, an email alleging improprieties at the Youth Pride Center was circulated to various media outlets. The email promised that the matter was to be raised at the meeting, but it was not specifically addressed that night.

The author of the email has not returned phone calls for comment, but YPC founder Frank Walker vigorously defended the organization against the allegations.

“We make a lot of enemies because we put people in a better place,” Walker said. “We stand by our record. We invite anyone who questions what happens here to ask the people who use the Center.”

Tyler Ashmon, 20, a YPC member, said he has needed the Center’s help since his parents threw him out for being gay. He called the Center “a place where every young person had a place of their own.”

Ashmon said that the Center helped him apply for college as well as pay for the apartment he now lives in. He said he viewed Walker “like a godfather. He’s a guidance to say that you can be whatever you want to be.”

The central feature of the Aug. 9 conference was a hypothetical case study centering on “Jamal,” a gay teenager who attends a center for GLBT youth, and “Doug,” a 32-year-old counselor at that center. Participants were broken into groups and invited to discuss what the possible implications might be if Doug were to offer Jamal a ride.

Groups were asked to consider the legal implications of the scenario as well as the implications for youth development; the boundaries that might be tested in the scenario; the needs that both young people and adults have after finding themselves in such a scenario; and where they could turn to for support.

After participants discussed the scenario, Wendi Wright, attorney for CDPH and one of the conference panelists, said that respecting boundaries is paramount in interactions between youth and mentors.

“Crossing professional boundaries gives rise to potential legal liability. …(If Jamal) makes a complaint, the first thing an investigator is going to do is ask, ‘What are your policies?’” Wright said.

She added, “The expectation is that whatever the bar is, I expect people to work that much harder. Our duty is to our client to do everything to protect them. And while there are a lot of things (we do) that are good-hearted things, we just need to think out as professionals a couple steps further sometimes before we act.”

Panelist Renee Ogletree, director of student development for Chicago Public Schools, said, “Everything is around perception. We’re all resources for young people. …They idolize us, but they look to us to bridge what they do know to what they don’t know.”

The timing for comments and questions was rigidly controlled.

Near the end of the meeting, a participant asked, “I’m kind of on the outskirts. I don’t really know what’s going on—what is the basis of this meeting and CGBMC?”

Moderator Diana Beasley said that the question would be answered at the conclusion of the meeting. At that point, Lora Branch, director of STD/HIV prevention and care programs for CDPH, said in response to the question, that the meeting was only “the tip of the iceberg. …Every issue that comes into this room is going to be addressed in a community forum—in a public forum—until we get the answers.”

CDPH nevertheless would not specifically comment on the impetus of the meeting’s agenda. In a statement, Simone Koehlinger, director of the office of LGBT health for CDPH, said the meeting “was to provide perspectives on important issues related to youth—specifically legal issues, psychological development issues, professional boundaries and culturally relevant resources.”

Koehlinger added, “The Chicago Department Health Department takes all allegations of abuse or other misbehavior involving youth very seriously. Adults entrusted to care for LGBT youth—who may be facing multiple challenges—have a great responsibility. It is essential that the LGBT community has an open and continual dialogue about those responsibilities.”