The Beyond Acceptance Research Collective (BARC) is a critical participatory action research (CPAR) project documenting experiences lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or gender expansive youth (LGBTQ+/GE) youth have with their families. Our project grew from a concern about the high number of LGBTQ+/GE youth that struggle with their families and a desire to better determine what kinds of supports would be helpful to help families move beyond acceptance to love, celebrate, and support LGBTQ+/GE young people. The BARC team is an intergenerational collective that consists of youth and adults who identify as LGBTQ+/GE. We conducted 23 in-depth interviews with LGBTQ+/GE youth from across New York City’s five boroughs about their family experiences and desires.
The BARC team also created three Zines, each containing an original comic that illustrates themes we heard in the interviews, as well as a video that creatively documents what we learned in our research. These resources were designed with three goals in mind: (1) to lift up the voices of LGBTQ+/GE youth about their family experiences in a creative and accessible way, (2) to provide resources to deepen conversations about acceptance of LGBTQ+/GE youth in families, and (3) to mobilize NYC communities, families, and policy makers to celebrate LGBTQ+/GE youth.
These materials and others can be found at the BARC website: https://opencuny.org/nycfarp/
Beyond Acceptance is dedicated to queer young people everywhere. ♥ We are beyond grateful to the young people who shared their wisdom and expertise with us in interviews, we could not have done this project without you! We hope you feel your voices, ideas, and stories are well represented here.
Thanks to the families we were born into and our chosen families, who have supported each of us throughout this project and help us be our best selves.
Thanks to Syd Seifert, Alejandro Rodriguez, and Davon Chance for generous collaboration.
Our research was made possible through partnerships with The New York City Unity Project, The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, The Graduate Center at the City University of New York, and SezMe
The BARC team also created three Zines, each containing an original comic that illustrates themes we heard in the interviews, as well as a video that creatively documents what we learned in our research. These resources were designed with three goals in mind: (1) to lift up the voices of LGBTQ+/GE youth about their family experiences in a creative and accessible way, (2) to provide resources to deepen conversations about acceptance of LGBTQ+/GE youth in families, and (3) to mobilize NYC communities, families, and policy makers to celebrate LGBTQ+/GE youth.
These materials and others can be found at the BARC website:
