The Alliance promotes safety, support, and healthy development for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ+) youth in Illinois through advocacy, education, youth organizing, and professional development. 

The Alliance, which made PHIMC its home in 2019, envisions a world in which youth develop to their fullest potential, learning in safe and nurturing schools, living in communities that accept and honor differences, where everyone has the freedom to express their sexual orientation and gender identity.

In collaboration with the Transgender and Gender Diverse Wellness and Equity Program, The Alliance supports the Midwest LGBTQ+ Network. The Network creates space for those who work with LGBTQ+ youth throughout the Midwest to come together to build community by sharing successes, challenges, and resources as we collectively fight back against the anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric that is occurring through policy, legislation, and social factors. If you have any questions about joining or participating in the Midwest LGBTQ+ Network, please reach out to Julio Flores at julio.flores@phimc.org or Bryan Gooding at bryan.gooding@phimc.org.

Our Values

The Alliance aspires to be trauma-informed in our practices and programming and to promote body positivity. We also seek to work under the lens of anti-oppression while using non-punitive approaches to conflict resolution. For a working document articulating our values, please click here.

The Alliance works primarily in three areas:

Youth Organizing and Leadership

Engaging youth across the state of Illinois to become agents of change in their own schools and communities and leaders in the LGBTQ+ safer schools movement, by providing technical assistance for existing or emerging Gender and Sexualities Alliances (GSAs).

Professional Development

Educating, training, and informing schools, community organizations, parents, public officials, youth, and others in Illinois, about sexual orientation and gender identity issues and the needs of LGBTQ+ youth. 

Policy and Advocacy

Advocating to include sexual orientation and gender identity affirmation in programs and policies that impact all spaces youth occupy, in order to support the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth.

Questions? Please contact Julio Flores.