Trevor Project announces new CEO, Jaymes Black, to helm the LGBTQ nonprofit

The Trevor Project, a national suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youths, has named a new CEO: Jaymes Black.

When Jaymes Black was 17, they accidentally dropped a note intended for their girlfriend at their high school in Robstown, Texas, a suburb of Corpus Christi. 

Another classmate picked it up, and soon the news of their relationship spread. From then on, they were known as “the gay girls at school.”

“This was in 1990s south Texas, so it was, frankly, brutal the way that the kids treated us after they found out,” said Black, 49. “The teachers would not talk with me about it. What that led to is me dropping out of high school. It was too isolating, and I just didn’t feel like I could go on.”

Black, who uses all pronouns, said that lived experience — and the way it allows them to relate to what some LGBTQ youths face across the country — is top of mind as they take on their new role as CEO at The Trevor Project, national suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit organization for LGBTQ youths.  They are the organization's first Black and first nonbinary CEO.

Previously the president and CEO of Family Equality, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing equality for LGBTQ families, Black is stepping into the position at The Trevor Project during a perilous time for LGBTQ youths, and trans youths in particular.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/trevor-project-announces-new-ceo-jaymes-black-rcna160708

---