[HeartStrongList] HeartStrong Network Call For Members

[heartstrong at heartstrong.org]

HeartStrong Network Call for Members

Seattle, WA - The only organization in the world with the sole mission to
reach GLBT former and current students of religious educational
institutions, HeartStrong, Inc., is seeking participants for its outreach
project, the HeartStrong Network.
	“We are looking for everyone in our GLBT communities who has ever
attended a religious educational institution,” says Marc Adams, Executive
Director and cofounder of HeartStrong, Inc. “All of us who share this
history must join hands so we can help to empower those who are still
struggling to survive. Those of us who have survived these institutions
and who have come to love ourselves in spite of what they tried to do to
us, must come together.”
	“Students and alumni of any religious school, college or university are
asked to respond,” Adams continues. “This includes Catholic, Mormon,
Seventh-day Adventist, Jewish, Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal...this
means everyone!”
	Those interested in participating in the HeartStrong Network project may
register online at www.heartstrong.org.
	Adams, a gay fundamentalist Baptist preacher’s son and former
fundamentalist himself, knows personally the journey that many GLBT
persons take when enrolled at religious educational institutions. “I
attended these types of schools from 5th grade through high school
graduation and I attended Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University for 3 ½
years,” Adams reflects.
	“The harsh disciplinary actions and faith-based anti-GLBT bullying I
experienced in the schools I attended were not even close to representing
the horrors that others have undergone at many of these institutions.”
	Adams and two others founded HeartStrong, Inc., in January of 1998. “We
feel strongly that we were meant to begin this work of reaching out to
struggling and suffering GLBT students at these schools,” says Adams.
“How could we turn our backs on the thousands of young people trapped
emotionally and physically in these environments?”
	“I remember watching many of my friends being persecuted at Liberty
University for homosexuality when I was a student there,” Adams injects,
“Each time one of my was forced out, I feared that someone would discover
me. I never showed them the love and compassion they so desperately
needed.”
	It is those experiences and Adams discovery twelve years ago that no one
was even attempting to focus on reaching students in these schools that
led him to found HeartStrong, Inc. It is now a 501 (c)(3) educational non
profit corporation governed by a board of others who have attended
religious schools.

The HeartStrong Outreach Team has driven over 363,000 miles in the past 10
years, sharing their personal stories, raising awareness about
HeartStrong, Inc., and doing outreach to students from religious
educational institutions.