Tommy Roddy, the creator of Pride High, has joined the board of directors of Sequential Heart, a community service organization dedicated to providing youth-friendly comics to programs and shelters serving homeless youth. Originally conceived in response to the dual problems of wasted materials—an enormous number of comics are pulped or discarded every year—and chronic underfunding of homeless youth programs, Sequential Heart is the brainchild of Rachel Edidin, an assistant editor at Dark Horse Comics, and Dean Trippe, a freelance illustrator and cartoonist and creator of the all-ages webcomic Butterfly.
With the diverse population served by homeless shelters, gathering a wide variety of youth-oriented comics is a key facet of Sequential Heart's mission.
"One of our goals is to offer specifically LGBT-friendly and focused materials. Another is to provide materials with prominent non-white protagonists. Pride High is perfectly in line with why we started Sequential Heart," says Edidin.
According to the January 2007 study conducted by The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in collaboration with the National Coalition for the Homeless, over 20 percent of homeless youth in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
"My own experience with this issue occurred shortly after I came out to my parents in high school. Like many LGBT youth, I was forced to leave home. Luckily, through the kindness of both friends and strangers, I was able to keep a roof over my head until I reconciled with my family. I'm both thrilled and honored to be a part of Sequential Heart, as I believe strongly in helping children who have been deprived of a home, regardless of the reason," says Roddy. His comic, Pride High, follows the adventures of gay-straight alliance at a school for super-powered youth, led by a formerly homeless teen.
You can find more information about Sequential Heart here or their upcoming website, http://www.sequentialheart.org. To volunteer with Sequential Heart, contact them at volunteers@sequentialheart.org.
For more information on Pride High, please visit www.pridecomics.com.
The January 2007 study, "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Youth: An Epidemic of Homelessness," can be found at http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/HomelessYouth.pdf
