{"id":438,"date":"2011-08-24T08:58:46","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T15:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=438"},"modified":"2019-05-30T13:50:33","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T20:50:33","slug":"lgbt-youth-celebrate-equality-at-the-av-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2011\/08\/24\/lgbt-youth-celebrate-equality-at-the-av-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBT youth promote equality at the AV Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"LGBT<\/a>
Ashley Moody, 16, and Mario Vasquez, 16, are members of the OUT Project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER \u2013 Dressed in purple Tuesday night, Antelope Valley’s gay community and its supporters hoped to send a strong message out to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re wearing purple to represent equality and family,\u201d said Aaron Gomez, 21, president of the OUT Project, a youth program that provides support systems to the AV\u2019s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. \u201cThe Antelope Valley Fair is about families and about different cultures, so we are here to represent because we are a part of this community too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen people shy away from things like this because they are afraid and because of the fear people bring to them,\u201d said OUT Project member Mario Vasquez, 16. \u201cAnd we\u2019re speaking for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gay community and dozens of supporters donned purple to the Antelope Valley Fair Tuesday to show solidarity for \u201cEveryone\u2019s Family Day,\u201d a movement created in response to the recent controversy surrounding the decision to remove rainbow-striped flags from the Antelope Valley Fair. Organizers were reportedly unaware of the connection to the gay community when they put up hundreds of rainbow flags at the Fair Grounds. But after receiving an anonymous complaint, organizers scrambled to remove the rainbow flags so as not to \u201coffend anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not trying to make a statement,\u201d said Fair GM Dan Jacobs last week.<\/p>\n

But they did make a statement \u2013 a negative statement to the LGBT community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it really sent a negative message to our community, especially the LGBT youth,\u201d said Vasquez. \u201cAnd it was not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The LGTB community group rallied together to appeal to the Fair\u2019s Executive Board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had everyone that we know just call and bombard them with messages and emails and tell them that we don\u2019t like that they took (the flags) down based off of one person,\u201d said OUT Project member Ashley Moody, 16. “We don’t feel that they are offensive. No one is being offended by them.”<\/p>\n

The group received a small victory when Fair organizers agreed to a compromise to place a handful of rainbow flags back at the Fair Grounds.<\/p>\n

Gomez says the small gesture proves that the LGBT community can and will be heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here and we are all part of this community,\u201d said Gomez. \u201cWe all have families, we\u2019re students, we\u2019re brothers, we\u2019re sisters, we\u2019re just like you, we\u2019re not some sick little subculture \u2026 we are good people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER \u2013 Dressed in purple Tuesday night, Antelope Valley’s gay community and its supporters hoped to send a strong message out to the public. \u201cWe\u2019re wearing purple to represent equality and family,\u201d said Aaron Gomez, 21, president of the OUT Project, a youth program that provides support systems to the AV\u2019s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}