Lyn Duff - Youth Rights Activism

Youth Rights Activism

From 1992 through 1998, Duff was an outspoken critic of the mental health system, appearing on CNN, ABC's 20/20, and numerous print, radio and television media outlets. She also spoke at a number of human rights, civil rights, mental health and youth services conferences about her experiences and the rights of young people to live free of discrimination and oppression on the basis of their sexual orientation. During these years she also served on the board of several national organizations including the National Center for Youth Law (board member from 1994–2001) and the National Child Rights Alliance (board member from 1992–1993, board chairperson from 1994–1999). In 1996, Duff was honored as a keynote speaker and given a human rights award at the international conference of the Metropolitan Community Church.

During these same years, Duff was emerging as a journalist in her own right, writing for Youth Outlook, a column in the San Francisco Examiner, and the Pacific News Service. She joined the staff of Flashpoints, a daily hour-long drive-time show broadcast on Pacifica Radio's KPFA in 1994. Her writings have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, Salon online, the Utne Reader, Sassy Magazine, the Washington Post, Seventeen, the Miami Herald and the National Catholic Reporter.

In 1995, Duff traveled to Haiti where she established Radyo Timoun ("Children's Radio"), that country's first radio station run entirely by children under the age of seventeen. She reportedly worked closely with Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

In 1998, Duff graduated with a BA in International Affairs and Labor Law from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.