PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND JOINS FORCES WITH TRUE COLORS AT LARGEST LGBT CONFERENCE IN U.S.

PPSNE proudly supports True Colors and stresses this year’s theme of "leveling the playing field."

(New Haven, Conn.) – On Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22, 2014, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England (PPSNE) is partnering with True Colors, a non-profit group which annually holds the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth conference at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn.

The theme of this year’s True Colors Conference is "leveling the playing field" and PPSNE is proud to participate in numerous ways at the 21st annual conference. In addition to co-sponsoring and having an educational table at the event, the PPSNE STARS (Students Teaching About Responsible Sexuality), a high school peer education group, will host various workshops on both days and on different topics, including Safer Sex is Smarter Sex, Communicate Before You Fornicate, Sex, Drugs and In Control and Media, Sexuality, Propaganda.

"Too often people in the LBGT community are discriminated against in their personal lives and with the health care they receive," said Kafi Rouse Director of Public Relations & Marketing with Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. "The playing field must be leveled. We are honored and humbled to work with True Colors and other agencies and organizations during the Annual True Colors Conference."

At the event, Planned Parenthood will coordinate live, interactive social media activities for participants. Keynote sessions and select workshops will be "live tweeted," with incoming questions and comments projected on screens in real-time. A "True Colors Scavenger Hunt" will send participants around the conference in search of items to be photographed and tweeted, with prizes for the first person on each day to find and post all 21 items. PPSNE will also coordinate True Colors Q&A, where conference participants can ask questions through social media and receive a reply directly from a True Colors staff member.

Established in 1992, True Colors is a non-profit organization that works with other social service agencies, schools, organizations and within communities to ensure that the needs of sexual and gender minority youth are both recognized and competently met. The organization trains more than 2,400 people annually, organizes the largest LGBT youth conference in the country with more than 2,000 attendees and manages the state’s only LGBT mentoring program.

Open to both youth and adults, participants at the True Colors Conference can choose from hundreds of workshops from various tracks: professional, youth only, college only, spiritual institute, general audience, family and caregivers and the activist institute.

The conference begins at 8 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 21, 2014. The conference continues the following morning on Saturday, March 22, at 8 a.m. and ends at midnight following a student-only dance.

In addition to educational and personal growth, participants can enjoy entertainment by special guests, such as Kit Yan, slam poet; Danny Moreno, singer, dancer and entertainer; Robin Cloud, comedian and Brianna Scurry, ESPN commentator.

Join the conversation and follow along throughout the entire weekend by searching for and using the #truecolors21 and #ppsneLIVE hashtags on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

For more information on True Colors or the conference, visit ourtruecolors.org.

For more information about Planned Parenthood of Southern New England call(203) 865-5158 or visit ppsne.org.

###