Gay Youth UK

Gay Youth UK or in more recent times GYUK is a website and message board forum for British gay, lesbian, bisexual, Transgender and questioning people under the age of 25.

GYUK is mainly an online support group, helping others in the young LGBT community deal with issues such as coming out, bullying and homophobia, alongside issues of sex and relationships. The forums and website also provide support on more general personal issues, unrelated to sexuality, such as family problems and mental health.

In recent times, the inclusion of a current affairs forum has broadened and increased discussion of home and worldwide events and politics. GYUK is similar to many other internet forums, with the usual internet memes, quizzes and games.

History
GYUK was founded by Nick and David Joseph Henry in 1997 as a support website for the Gay Youth community, which, at the time, was considered ground-breaking and was commended by other online LGBT groups. The Site rose from the '#GAYYOUTHUK' IRC chat group, which was linked in with the site. The IRC Group closed and the site's members began to use (at the time called EGroups).

In 1999 a group of members led by David Henry decided there was a need for another 'real-life' presence organisation and formed the (sometimes considered "rival") organisation Queer Youth Alliance..

Since the formation of QYA, GYUK was handed from Nick to Tim McGrath in 1999 who presently still owns, co-ordinates and runs the site (as of 2006). Tim shared some of his management of the forum with member David Foster ('recuerdo') and, later, Laura Poultney ('Ludo') and Adam Dunkley ('angelic venus'), who together make up the site's current Administration, assisted by a team of moderators. From 2007 the ownership changed once more when it was handed to Adam Dunkley.

New Site
A new site is currently in construction, which hopes to revive the currently dated front page and aims to eventually tightly integrate the community forums. This will be the first major visual refresh since the site last had its layout changed in May 2004.

The new site will no longer use the domain gayyouthuk.org.uk, but will use the shorter gayyouth.org.uk which currently redirects to the forums.

Internet Meets
Regularly site members meet in cities across the UK to socialise and relax in real life. The first of these meets was in 2004, held in Birmingham on the 29th of April. 'Recuerdo' spearheaded the first GYUK 'London Meet' first held in August 2004. Meets are regularly held throughout the entire country.

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