Backing for gay youth group 'underwhelms'

Reverend Tony Franklin-Ross says he is keen to support the young gay community in Hawke's Bay. Photo / Duncan Brown

Efforts to establish a support group for gay Hawke's Bay youth have failed through a lack of public support.

Three years ago, GayOk was established to meet the needs of the Bay's young gay community, but, despite support from a local Methodist church, the venture failed because the wider community did not back it.

Group co-founders Lloyd Mason, now 23, and Jason Gerbes, 19, had been struggling with their own sexuality and hoped to minimise community negativity towards diversity.

"There is a real stigma around homosexuality in Hawke's Bay and it truly does take a toll on gay youths," Mr Gerbes said. "We were trying to provide support for the gay community in Hawke's Bay, which personally we found a lack of."

They approached local organisations for funding and to broaden support, but Mr Mason said the response underwhelmed.

"We tried to get in contact with schools and other organisations who could invest, but we kept getting cold shoulders.

"Schools are very tightly operated and don't like people coming in from the outside and, with the banks, the common message we got was that they were already putting money into the community."

Havelock North High School's guidance counsellor, Gaye Evans-Love, was one of the few school counsellors in support of GayOk, Mr Mason said.

While talks about an in-school service led by GayOk never came to fruition, Ms Evans-Love said schools needed to acknowledge diversity. "Schools have a responsibility to make sure all students feel a part of, and are included in, everything."

The Trinity Methodist Church in Napier also showed support by allowing GayOk meetings in the church lounge.

Reverend Tony Franklin-Ross, 46, an "out-gay minister", had heard about GayOk when it was starting and he was keen to help.

"The parish has had a mission statement for a number of years to be inclusive across a range of aspects such as age, gender, culture and sexuality," Mr Franklin-Ross said.

"The prominent discourse in the media is that the church has a negative attitude towards sexuality, but we were happy to say 'we don't affirm that'."

Since moving to the Bay just over two years ago, Mr Franklin-Ross said the difficulty in identifying a strong gay or lesbian community in the area was the issue, not homophobia.

If youth lacked a sense of belonging, they would go where there was a better sense of community and more support services, he added.