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The Utah Pride Center will host its first Family Acceptance Regional Conference Oct. 8-10. The conference aims to address risks, such as depression and homelessness, faced by many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youths by training family members and mental health providers.
Last year, a survey at the Homeless Youth Resource Center in Salt Lake City found that 42 percent of youths served there identified as LGBT. The center, operated by Volunteers of America, works with more than 700 homeless young people each year.
Speakers at the October conference include Caitlin Ryan, a social worker and director of the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University; Ed Byrne, a member of the Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth and Dave Reynolds of the The Trevor Project, which works to prevent suicide in the gay and transgender community.
The event is at the Sheraton City Centre Hotel, 150 W. 500 South, in Salt Lake City. Organizers invited members of the Utah Legislature to attend.
"It's especially meaningful that the conference is taking place in a community that values families deeply," Ryan said in a statement. "The information and tools attendees can take from it will help many families."
Registration fees, which range $50 to $125, increase on Friday. For details and scholarship information, go to http://www.utahpridecenter.org.
Rosemary Winters