From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

STEVEN ALICEA

HIV/AIDS activist

April 20 2005

A few years ago, Steven Alicea's grades were plummeting, he had stopped caring about school, and he was feeling as if there was no point in living. Much has changed since then. For starters, the senior at the School for Applied Technology in Miami is no longer afraid to tell people he is gay. With the support of his two foster moms, the 18-year-old Alicea gets A's and B's, is in student government and has worked more than 1,000 community service hours, most of them at Pridelines Youth Services in Miami, where he runs a performing arts group. But he doesn't stop there. In his spare time, he works as a peer educator at Care Resource, an HIV/AIDS service organization in Miami, and is planning to study business and dance after graduation.

In October, Alicea's good grades, AIDS activism and impressive volunteer work earned him a Do the Right Thing community service award and a trip to London paid for by the Miami Police Department. A month later, the Colin Higgins Foundation gave him its annual Courage Award and $5,000, citing his resilience and the grace with which he handles himself, even after enduring "overwhelming hate and hostility."

As a baby, Alicea moved to South Florida from Puerto Rico with his mother, whom he describes as a drug addict. Later, Alicea juggled school and the care of his younger brother and sister. By 10, he and his siblings had been separated and placed in foster care. During the next six years, Alicea lived in 17 different foster homes. Whenever he mustered the courage to tell his foster parents he was gay, he was told that homosexuality was a sin and that he would go to hell.

"Most of the homes were religious-based," he recalls. "I just thought, 'You know, they're nice, caring people, and they should understand that they could help me, if anything.' "

Instead, Alicea thought no one could relate to what he was going through. "It came to a point where I just didn't want to live anymore, you know?" he explains. "Like, why did all of this have to happen to me?"

Then, a caseworker with the Department of Children and Families told him about Pridelines, a community center that hosts support groups and social activities for gay, bisexual and transgendered youths. Alicea began volunteering at the center, where he met Denise Hueso, the organization's former executive director. Hueso and her partner, Sandra Newson, soon became Alicea's new foster parents.

In 2003, Hueso encouraged Alicea to dance in Near/Far/In/Out, a performance about sexuality at New World School of the Arts in Miami. Alicea created a dance about adjusting to life with his new parents.

"They encourage me for the best, and they push me," he says. "Sometimes, I think they're a pain in the butt. But in the end, I'm grateful for them because if they didn't [push me], I wouldn't have experienced the things I have."

Alicea often tells the kids he counsels not to give up. "There's hope out there," he says, "and you just really have to work at it sometimes."

-- Colleen Dougher