LGBTQ youth who are making a difference: Yasmin Flasterstein

25 | Bisexual | She/Her/Hers

Yasmin, who was born in Israel, came to Orlando to study psychology at the University of Central Florida. Her initial involvement in Orlando’s LGBTQ community came by working at Mental Health Association of Central Florida when they created the Orlando United Counseling program in response to the Pulse tragedy. That is also the time that she came out.

“I was inspired to come out by the overwhelming feeling of anger I had after Pulse that made me feel like I shouldn’t be ashamed,” she says. “I felt so much anger by what happened and then I self-reflected on that. It encouraged me to come out and be my authentic self.”

Yasmin was named the program director of Mental Health Association of Central Florida’s Orlando United Counseling program. As she helped to get long-term counseling to those affected by the Pulse tragedy, Yasmin also wanted to take the opportunity to tackle the stigma of mental health that existed for LGBTQ+, Latinx, black and immigrant communities.

“From that I created a series of workshops and panels that tackled the mental health stigma within those communities,” she says. “One of the first things I did was Butterfly Talks (a group for questioning, lesbian, multiple-gender loving, queer woman and all transgender individuals). That was one of my first jumps in. I didn’t start the group, a friend did, but she encouraged me to take over the group when she wasn’t able to continue.”

Inspired by Butterfly Talks, Yasmin launched Peer Support Space in January 2019.

“While the focus is providing mental health services for communities that are underserved and the most impacted by suicide, a large focus is on LGBTQ+ communities,” Yasmin says. “It is creating that sense of chosen family that is really understood by the LGBTQ+ community and saying how can we create this understanding for the need of a chosen family for all of the mental health community? Because of that approach, our board of directors and our committees are almost entirely LGBTQ+ individuals.”

Yasmin became a part of the One Orlando Alliance (OOA), first representing Mental Health Association of Central Florida and then as a representative of Peer Support Space.

“I have been OOA’s Community Engagement Chair for over a year. I organize their volunteers, their panels and their events,” Yasmin says. “I played a big role in the #ActGiveLove movement, Orlando United Day of Love and Kindness, so I’ve been highly involved with the OOA.”

Yasmin was recently elected to the board of the OOA as a membership representative.

“I feel grateful to be given a seat at the table being so young to have my ideas heard and hopefully it helps to bring about some change,” she says.

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