Photo credit: GLAAD

As a part of the Southern Stories Summer Tour leg in Texas, GLAAD staff visited Dream Home in Edinburg to visit with residents and share a sneak peek of GLAAD’s upcoming mini-documentary, “GLAAD Presents: State of Change – Texas.”

Dream Home provides housing and services for “dacamented” students–young adults who have been granted temporary work and residency authorization under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Residents and board members of Dream home described efforts to build Pride Home, which will be emergency housing for LGBT youth who have been rejected by their families. Pride Home will be a complement to Dream Home, both sharing the mission of providing stable housing for young people who face barriers in the Rio Grande Valley. 

Equality Texas and members of Dream and Pride Home talked about their responses to the sneak peek, and what issues they are facing in Texas. 

GLAAD, Equality Texas, and Dream Home representatives

Pride Home will provide emergency housing for LGBT youth who have been left homeless or experienced abuse due to discrimination from their family members. The Executive Director, Sarah Rose Marie Chavez, has been working on opening this center since September 2015, after seeing the success with Dream Home, a similar center that provides housing for dacamented students.

Following the visit to Dream Home, GLAAD attended and shared resources at a youth-led benefit to support Pride Home. The benefit included live musical numbers and drag performances, and was very well attended by LGBT community members, local advocacy leaders, and allied locals–many of whom took pictures to support GLAAD’s Accept movement.

Benefit organizer and Dream Home member

The visit to Dream Home and Pride Home is a part of GLAAD’s ground work in Texas this week where staff members will be meeting with community members to discuss ways to accelerate acceptance and amplify the voices of LGBT people in the Lone Star state.

While on the ground in Texas, GLAAD has been sharing original resources, including the newly released Southern Stories media resource guide, “Southern Stories: A Guide for Reporting on LGBT people in Texas,” with advocates, LGBT community members, and leading regional media outlets. 

“GLAAD Presents: State of Change – Texas” will be the latest in a series of mini-documentaries about LGBT people living in Southern states. Previously released mini-documentaries have focused on South Carolina and Georgia. To learn more about GLAAD’s Southern Stories initiative, visit the Southern Stories page in GLAAD’s website.

Check out more pictures from the evening benefit:

Leaders of the local PFLAG chapter

PFLAG leader

PFLAG leader

PFLAG leader

PFLAG leader and GLAAD Presents: State of Change – Texas interviewee, Cindy

PFLAG leader

Reproductive justice and health access advocates

Robert Salcido from Equality Texas

GLAAD’s Ross Murray with a local artist

GLAAD’s Janet Quezada, Equality Texas’ Robert Salcido and Lou Weaver, GLAAD’s Alexandra Bolles, and Freedom for All American’s Sissy Yado

GLAAD’s resource table