Too young to vote, these LGBTQ+ teens are organizing for a say in their future

For young people exhausted by attacks on their rights, Queer the Ballot offers practical tools to influence decisions about their lives — before they can cast a ballot.

In eighth grade, Bekah Garlikov began taking a screenshot of the news headlines about transgender people every day. He wanted to understand what people like him were going through. What he found initially left him feeling powerless.

Now 17, the Bay Area high school senior is helping other young people influence decisions about their lives — even though he will not turn 18 until April, too late to vote in November’s midterm elections.

“I don’t feel in control anymore. And I hate that, because this is my life, and my body, and my experiences, and people deciding it don’t have those experiences and perspectives,” Garlikov told The Advocate.

That frustration is helping drive Queer the Ballot, a youth-led, nonpartisan civic engagement campaign confronting a problem that goes beyond voter registration. The goal is to figure out how to persuade LGBTQ+ young people that participation matters when politics has become exhausting and frightening.

Related: Rent, rights, and the ballot box: What queer Gen Z wants from Washington

Part of the international youth-led organization Dear Queer Youth, the campaign was started by five high school students: Sophia Wong in Los Angeles; Jay Roy and Garlikov in the San Francisco Bay Area; Christopher Grady in Virginia; and Alex Howard in North Carolina.

The campaign includes more than 10 workshops, the distribution of more than 200 civic toolkits, and a storytelling effort featuring LGBTQ+ young people who explain how policy affects their lives. It aims to reach more than 2,000 young people through schools, GSAs, libraries, and youth and LGBTQ+ centers.

In separate interviews with The Advocate, four organizers described young people who are deeply affected by political decisions but often unsure whether they can change them.

Wong, who started the initiative, said conversations with peers helped reveal the need. As president of her school’s GSA, she encountered students distressed by attacks on LGBTQ+ rights who had begun tuning out.

“I would say the majority of my friends and people I see are really shutting it out,” Wong said.

The organizers heard similar responses across their communities. Their answer was to make participation concrete: how to contact a school board, attend a city council meeting, evaluate political messaging, or protest safely.

Wong said the project received a $7,500 grant through the Carnegie Young Leaders for Civic Preparedness Program and mentorship. Team members connected to It Gets Better’s Youth Voices program have also sought guidance and feedback through that network.

The instruction is intended to help participants make their own decisions.

“We’re saying, what do you care about? What do you want the government to do for you?” Garlikov said.

For Roy, 16, the connection between government and daily life is personal. The California organizer described the possibility of losing access to gender-affirming care as a persistent worry.

His own care, he said, involved repeated appointments, conversations with a mental health professional, and medical evaluation. Hormone therapy helped him feel comfortable enough to build friendships and explore interests in STEM and sports.

“It allowed me to focus more on who I am,” he said.

That experience informs his approach to civic education. Teaching someone how to write a persuasive letter or understand legislation is one part of the work. Helping them recognize why those actions matter is another.

Related: LGBTQ+ young people are politically engaged — but it's complicated

Roy said some peers believe they must simply endure the administration until the next presidential election.

“But I think turning that wanting to do something into realizing we can do something, that’s the most important part of voter mobilization and kind of shifting that sense of resignation,” he said.

Howard, 16, brings a different regional perspective. The transgender and nonbinary organizer lives in Raleigh and previously lived part-time in rural Edgecombe County, North Carolina. They said the project must account for young people whose families or communities may make public advocacy difficult.

“We need to talk about why people may feel unsafe to take action,” Howard said.

For teenagers dependent on parents, guardians, schools, or employers, participation can involve calculations that organizers in more supportive environments might overlook. Howard wants the materials to address those circumstances, along with gerrymandering and the history of political violence in the South.

Their experience as vice president of their school’s GSA also informs their emphasis on communication. They value listening, explaining why language can be harmful, and recognizing that one conversation may plant a seed rather than immediately change someone’s mind.

The organizers’ concerns extend beyond LGBTQ+ policy. Wong said peers worry about rent, gas prices, and finding jobs after college — issues she does not believe candidates adequately address.

Upcoming workshops listed by the campaign include October 20 at Raleigh’s Oberlin Regional Library, October 22 with Enloe High School’s GSA, and an online session October 24. Its schedule also lists Los Angeles workshops at Robertson Library, Harvard-Westlake’s GSA, and Didi Hirsch Place, with additional programming in development in the Bay Area, Ohio, Utah, and Virginia.

Garlikov said the toolkit would first go to workshop participants and other reviewers for feedback, with public release ideally in late October or November. Wong wants the work to continue after the election, with participants eventually returning to teach others.

For Garlikov, advocacy comes alongside college applications, classes, and friendships. He wants readers to understand that being transgender is one part of his life.

“You’re making it a big deal, and you’re trying to isolate me and make me some extravagant thing when I’m literally just a kid,” he said.