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Carolyn Laub
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Carolyn Laub, Founder and Executive Director of Gay-Straight Alliance Network, received an Echoing Green Fellowship in 1999 and launched an organization to ensure full implementation of California’s nondiscrimination law.
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Carolyn Laub is the founder and Executive Director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, an organization of school-based organizations for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and straight youth 13 -18 to stop harassment, violence and discrimination against students who are not straight.This is how it started: In 1998 she was running a support group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students who had been harassed or discriminated against when she discovered the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs in high schools. She thought it was a powerful concept that could solve the problem of LGBT violence and harassment at the root cause, through education rather than counseling kids who had been victimized.
She created an organization that would propel forward the creation and success of the GSA Clubs. Today the GSA Network is in over 650 schools in California.
Her secret? The GSA Network is actually youth driven! Decisions are made by the Club members and leaders. The kids bring an enthusiasm and an authenticity that an adult-driven organization could not create on its own.
Carolyn has started several organizations and admits to being a serial entrepreneur as well as a very determined woman. All of the organizations she has started forward her vision of creating a world in which a range of sexual orientations and gender identities are accepted. She has also started the California Safe Schools Coalition, and other organizations that work for acceptance of many sexual orientations.
The model of organization she has helped create in California is now emerging nationwide, accelerating the movement for LGBT rights.
Her advice to other social entrepreneurs: “You should pursue your vision with every resource you can find, and all of your energy – get a clear goal, leverage your resources and turn them into reality!”
CLICK on the player above to listen to her interview.
