Live Out Loud, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating safe, inclusive, and affirming educational environments for LGBTQ youth, provided four high school students with college scholarships and honored several celebrities as part of the organization’s annual homecoming gala on May 19.
The lively event, which featured honorees such as actress Tommy Dorfman, designer Jeffrey Banks, and “Real Housewives of New York” star Racquel Chevremont, sought to embody the organization’s broader goal of connecting LGBTQ youth to positive role models, resources, and opportunities in the LGBTQ community.
“The most important thing for us to see is everyone to come together as a community, not only to celebrate our honorees but more specifically our scholarship winners,” Live Out Loud founder and executive director Leo Preziosi, Jr. said in an interview with Gay City News.
Preziosi founded the organization in response to growing suicide rates among queer and questioning youth. Today, Live Out Loud, an NYC-based non-profit, works to support and uplift LGBTQ voices by providing them with educational resources and community role models, and also works to recognize the social impact of leaders of change.
“I’d love for them to build some networking opportunities and hopefully walk out of here with an internship,” Preziosi said, describing the gala as a safe space for the four awardees to meet other LGBTQ rights advocates and discover new career opportunities.
Situated at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, the event took on an aspect of a celebrity prom, complete with dazzling outfits, a dinner buffet and a 360 video platform. The Red Carpet hosted an incredible lineup of talent in addition to the honorees, including beauty expert Ian Michael Crumm and opera singer/drag artist Shequida, who emceed the program.
Other notable guests included Broadway actor and singer Frankie Grande, fresh off the release of the music video for his “loud, proud, and gay” summer anthem “Boys.”
“Listen, my whole life all I’ve strived to do is create a pathway for LGBTQ+ youth to have an easier time than I did,” Grande said to Gay City News. “And now during these next four years, it’s looking like it’s going to be more difficult once again. … So for me it’s more important to show up for LGBTQ+ youth now than ever.”
This year’s scholarship winners included local high schoolers Alexandra Barahona, Akoni Drysdale-Ash, Dani Hidalgo, and Rai-Elle Ingram, aged 16 to 17.
Barahona plans to study Political Science at American University, creating more opportunities for future immigrant generations.
Drysdale-Ash plans to study Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at LaGuardia Community College and is excited to continue to represent the transgender and queer community, especially in basketball.
“I want to play women’s basketball and continue to exist as a trans person and stand up for my community,” they said.
“Yeah, basketball for sure,” Drysdale-Ash grinned.
Ingram shared that she would be attending Spelman College, the country’s oldest historically Black college (HBCU) for women, on a full ride. She plans to become a lawyer.
The four awardees not only represented the type of advocacy work that today’s youth are taking on in their schools and communities, but also showed what happens when LGBTQ youth are given opportunities and a place at the table.
“If I had had something like this at their age, it would’ve changed my entire life,” said Chevremont, who finished taping Season 15 of “Real Housewives of New York” in February. “I’m not giving them opportunities [tonight], they’re giving me an opportunity.”
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