New generation.

When the editors of The Advocate's GenQ pages heard about a group in Queens, N.Y., called Generation Q, they couldn't resist the desire to find out more. It turns out the group, which advocates for the under-21 gay and questioning set, is becoming a political force in the state.

Generation Q created their most recent stir at a mayoral forum in April at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of New York. Intended as an easygoing meet-and-greet for gay New Yorkers and candidates in the November election, Generation Q members showed up with signs reading KIDS SCREAM DYKE AT ME IN THE HALLS. Some rushed to the front of the hall and loudly criticized Mayor Michael Bloomberg's veto of the Dignity for All Students Act, an antibullying measure which eventually passed. "We were terrified we were going to get arrested," said Keith Mulet, a 19-year-old college sophomore and member of Generation Q.

Instead, they were cheered by the crowd and caught the attention of Bloomberg representative Verna Eggleston. "[Eggleston] promised the [Generation Q] kids that she would get them in to see the mayor," said Marisa Ragonese, the 27-year-old program director for the group. "We depend on the young people to take initiative. We try to teach the kids to be leaders."

And their work is getting noticed. Members of Generation Q appeared on gay network Here TV's Here With Pride show. At Manhattan Pride they displayed signs bearing the names of young gays who were killed or had committed suicide. Indeed, it was such a killing that spurred the Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee to form the youth group in 2000. Steen Keith Fenrich was 19 when he was murdered and mutilated by his stepfather, who said he disapproved of his stepson's homosexuality. "It became evident that sometimes kids weren't even safe at home," Ragonese said.

Now the group is sponsored and managed by the Forest Hills Community House and has its own facility in the Queens neighborhood of Astoria.