Founded in 1984 by a small group of volunteer gay and lesbian activists who recognized the need for a safe place for LGBTQ youth to meet and receive support, the group SMYAL has evolved over the past 40 years into one of the nation’s largest organizations providing a wide range of support, including housing and mental health counseling, for LGBTQ youth in the D.C. metro area.

SMYAL’s work over its 40-year history and its plans for the future were expected to be highlighted and celebrated at its annual fundraising brunch scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 21 at D.C.’s Marriott Marquis Hotel. SMYAL says the event will be hosted by a “star-studded group,” including MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart.

“What a profound moment and opportunity to be able to be here while celebrating the 40th anniversary,” said Erin Whelan, who began her role as SMYAL’s executive director in September 2022. “It’s an exciting time for us,” Whelan told the Blade in a Sept. 11 interview along with SMYAL’s Director of Communications Hancie Stokes.

“We just finished a strategic plan,” Whelan said. “Not only are we reflecting on the previous 40 years but really looking to the next three to five years,” she said, adding that the plan calls for continuing SMYAL’s growth, which accelerated  over the past four or five years.

Whelan and Stokes spoke with the Washington Blade at SMYAL’s headquarters and LGBTQ youth drop-in center in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. SMYAL’s ability to purchase that building in 1997 through financial support from the community, has played an important role in SMYAL’s history, according to Whelan and Stokes.

The two-story building consists of two attached row houses that it has converted into offices and meeting space.

The two pointed to information posted on the SMYAL website, including information from D.C.’s Rainbow History Project, which tells the story of SMYAL’s founding in 1984. It was a time when many LGBTQ youth faced hardship and discrimination as well as challenges from their families, some of whom were unaccepting of their kids who thought about identifying as gay, lesbian or gender nonconforming.

Local gay activist and attorney Bart Church, one of SMYAL’s co-founders, told fellow activists that he was prompted to help launch an LGBTQ youth advocacy group after learning that gender nonconforming youth, including some who “crossed dressed” and identified as a gender other than their birth gender, were being incarcerated in D.C.’s St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric hospital.

“Recognizing that that these young people were not mentally ill, but instead needed  programs that were safe and affirming to explore their identities, Bart and several other allied community members formed a group called SMYAL,” a statement released by SMYAL says. It says Church and other founders named the group the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League.

“We met at first at Bart’s apartment,” said another co-founder, Joe Izzo, who later worked for many years as a mental health counselor at D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Clinic. In addition to the incarceration of some of the youth at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Izzo said the SMYAL founders were concerned about the impact of the AIDS epidemic on gay youth, who may not have been informed about safer sex practices.

D.C. gay activist and economist Chuck Goldfarb, who said he became involved as a SMYAL volunteer in 1986, said he recalls hearing from gay and lesbian social workers who also became involved with SMYAL “that a number of youths who were, in the term they used, cross dressing, were getting locked up in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital psychiatric ward.”

“And Bart Church called together people he knew were service providers and said let’s get together and do something about it,” Goldard told the Blade. “And the first thing they started doing was to put together a referral list of LGBT supportive therapists and counselors,” according to Goldfarb, who could be called to help LGBT youth, and their families address issues such as sexual orientation and gender identity.

Among the original group of founders credited with helping to transform SMYAL into a larger, more comprehensive organization was Stephan Wade, who developed a training program and led a needs assessment effort. The assessment, among other things, determined that what LGBT youth at that time most needed was a safe place to meet and socialize with others like themselves, the SMYAL write-up says.

“Within three years, SMYAL established a well-respected program of youth socialization and education  as well as a training program for adult professionals, with outreach to schools, runaway shelters, and juvenile correctional facilities,” the write-up says. “Many individuals contributed to the SMYAL program, but it was Stephan Wade’s expertise and leadership that turned a plan into reality,” it says. The write-up says Wade died of AIDS-related complications in 1995.

With Wade and his fellow volunteers putting in place SMYAL’s first drop-in center for LGBTQ youth and the other programs supported by volunteer counselors and other professionals, SMYAL hired its first full-time staff member in 1989, the write-up says.

Stokes points out that SMYAL drew considerable media attention in 1990 when vocal opposition surfaced to ads SMYAL had placed in high school newspapers announcing its services for LGBT youth, which were initially approved by school officials. The opposition, coming from some parents and conservative advocates opposed to LGBTQ rights, in the long run may have generated attention to SMYAL and its programs that prompted others to support SMYAL including financially.

The SMYAL write-up says the first annual fundraising brunch, which is the organization’s largest fundraising event, began in 2003. Stokes said in the following years SMYAL has received support from local foundations and through a major individual donor program as well as from grants from the D.C. government that support specific SMYAL programs.

Stokes and Whelan also point out that in 2013 SMYAL changed its name from Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League to Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders, which kept the SMYAL initials. The two said the change reflects SMYAL’s significant expansion of its services beyond its initial core program of providing a safe meeting space for LGBTQ youth.

The two note that in 2017 SMYAL began its housing program for homeless LGBTQ youth; in 2019 it launched its Little SMYALs program, which provides services for youth between the ages of 6 and 12 and their families. And in 2021 SMYAL launched its Clinical Services program, which provides mental health counseling for LGBTQ youth.

Stokes and Whelan said the Little SMYALs program involves parents bringing in their kids mostly to a Saturday gathering where the kids meet, socialize, and play games or do artwork. The two said in the age range of 6 to 12, the Little SMYALers, as they are called, are mostly dealing with their gender identity rather than sexual orientation.

“Kids are expressing to their parents or caregivers that they might feel different,” Whelan said. “Often times that’s expressing that they don’t feel like they are the gender in which they were born. And so, the parents are starting to talk with that youth about what that is.”

Stokes said the Little SMYALs program reaches out to parents as well as the youth. “How do we equip parents to be there to support and believe them when they come out,” is a question that Stokes said SMYAL tries to address. “How do you make sure you are a safe resource when your young person comes to you and says this is who I am? We want people to see you fully and authentically.”

Stokes and Whelan said SMYAL currently has a staff of about 43 and an annual budget of $5.1 million. They said about 90 families are currently enrolled in the Little SMYALs program, with about 30 families with their kids attending on a monthly basis. They said the youth ages 13 through high school age come at least twice a week after school hours and on Saturdays.

“And they do all sorts of things from sharing, just talking, listening to music, eating, and just being in community with each other,” Whelan said of the older kids. Stokes noted that SMYAL also organizes events for the older youth, including a Pride Prom for youth “who might not feel comfortable bringing their partner of choice to their school’s prom.”

The two said SMYAL also organizes an annual activist summit for youth interested in becoming leaders and organizers. They said about 90 youth attended this year’s summit. 

“I think one thing that I’m really proud of is that we started as a grassroots organization out of a need in our community,” Whelan said. “And I think through the 40 years that we’ve been in existence, we continue to really anchor in what are the most pressing needs of our communities,” she said. 

Further information about SMYAL’s programs and the upcoming brunch can be accessed at smyal.org.