Last week, 19-year-old Johnson & Wales University sophomore
Raymond Chase died in his Providence, R.I., dorm room, becoming
the fifth LGBT youth to take his own life over the past three
weeks. The recent rash of tragedies has led notable figures like
Ellen DeGeneres and Dan Savage, through his It Gets Better
Project to start campaigns to end campus harassment and hate
crimes, but how do we build a lasting foundation of support
networks for LGBT people within communities of color? The
Applied Research Center (ColorLines.com’s publisher), in
partnership with the Arcus Foundation, recently released “Better
Together,” a study of the intersection between lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender communities and organizations of color.
There’s a widespread misconception that LGBT communities and
people of color are radically different constituencies in the
political landscape—an assumption that acts not only as a
barrier to engaging in meaningful work, but serves to further
ostracize young LGBT people of color in thei