By Karen Ocamb

Children are not born existentialists. It is a philosophy that comes after hard rejection in an apathetic or hostile universe.

Rather, children are born expecting the comfort and connection. Self-awareness comes from the mirror of others.

So what of children born gay, children who learn early on that they are different from those who provide nurturance and identity?

Over the years, some brave gays and educators have stood up to society’s cruel perversity of letting schoolyard “sissies” suffer. But what happens when youth “age-out” of whatever safe space has provided them comfort and connection? From whom do they continue to learn and develop identity?

Enter the Point Foundation, the National LGBT Scholarship Fund. Since its inception in 2001, the Point Foundation has given more than $2 million in scholarships to LGBT youth who have demonstrated leadership and scholastic skills but for some reason—often related to the revelation of their sexual orientation or gender identity—do not have the financial or social support to pay for a college education that today costs roughly $8,000-40,000 a year.

This year’s 38 LGBT scholars will gather in Los Angeles on July 27-29 for a Leadership Conference featuring skills-building workshops and lectures from LGBT leaders such as Torie Osborn, special assistant to L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the now-international Metropolitan Community Church, on how to be a good leader and give back to the community.

“These are very brilliant young people,” said Jorge Valencia in a phone interview from New York City where he is visiting board members. Several current scholars are attending colleges and universities on the East Coast.

Valencia became executive director of the Point Foundation last January after five years as director of The Trevor Project, a helpline for LGBT youth. While the Point Foundation received incredible media coverage, including an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show and stories in the New York Times, the growing national organization needed a better infrastructure, a development skill at which Valencia excels. Recently, the organization opened new offices at 5757 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Valencia first became aware of the difficulties faced by youth, especially LGBT youth, when he served as director of external affairs for the U.S. Small Business Administration during the Clinton administration. But the moment when the plight of LGBT youth “really hit” was after an interview session with a scholarship applicant.

The final selection process includes a 20-minute face-to-face interview with Valencia and the board about the young person’s leadership activities, academic excellence and thoughts for the future.

“One young man was visibly nervous,” Valencia said. “We’d ask a question and he’d look down a little. He answered appropriately, but he was nervous. I went up to him afterwards and said, ‘See, it wasn’t that bad.’ He looked at me and said, ‘You know, it wasn’t difficult. What was difficult was sitting in a room where, for the first time in my life, everyone wanted me to succeed.’”

“My hear breaks when I think of that young man,” Valencia continues. “But it really goes to show why an organization like the Point Foundation is so necessary. There are many, many LGBT youth with nobody out there to support them and want them to succeed.” (Yes, the young man was selected.)

The scholars truly befit the weight of the title, Valencia said. In order to be considered for the award, the scholars must have a grade point average of 3.5 or higher, must hold a leadership role in school or in the community, must be involved in the LGBT community and must accept the requirement that they participate in a yearly community service project that benefits the LGBT community.

To that end, Valencia said, they work with an assigned mentor to come up with a project that can range from creating an awareness drive at a Gay Pride event to working with professionals to create HIV clinics around the world. In fact, he said, the mentor program itself was an outgrowth of the service project.

“Everyone is actively involved,” Valencia said. “But it’s not a simple matter. We are grooming the future leaders of our society.”

For Herb Hamsher, vice-chair of the Point Foundation’s board of directors and longtime entertainment producer, involvement with the Point Foundation is intensely rewarding.

“For most of my lifetime, there has been an unconscious pull in our community for adults to avoid connecting with youth,” Hamsher tells IN. “My conviction has been that this came from a fear of the straight world's accusation of ‘molesting' and/or ‘recruiting.’ Point Foundation has had the wisdom to see the importance of supporting our own and the courage to refuse to be controlled by other people's projections. We are a distinctive minority in that we are born into families who don't share our identity. Therefore we typically grow up without elders supporting us as GLBT people, teaching us, sharing with us, and modeling behavior and values for us.”

“The discovery that comes from being a part of Point is that putting one’s resources and energy into developing the potential of our youth leads to the realization that we have at least as much emotional connection to the community of our identity as we have for our biological families, for some—even more,” Hamsher continues. “In fact, being a part of actively building a community that spans generations and has not only a past but a future, inspires the kind of passion and pride that some of us have not experienced since we linked arms with our brothers and sisters and stood up to a hostile and condemning government, and country, that turned their backs on us when we were struck by the tragedy of the AIDS pandemic.

“Point Foundation is the best demonstration to me,” Hamsher says, “of demonstrating our own sense of worth by investing in the next generation of leaders.”

For more information, see www.pointfoundation.org.