Ajani Benjamin, age 19

Jamaica, Queens, NY

I like the fact that I'm always taking in information and trying to process it or use it to change me... I've been a police academy cadet for six months now, and that's definitely changed me.

I was adopted by my mother in Antigua when I was eight months old... just my mom, no father. My mom and I are extremely, extremely close. She said that's because when she was raising me, she tried—and still does—to treat me more like an equal... She tries to ask my opinion and tries to guide me as opposed to telling me what to do.

I view family in a broad sense, and I don't know if it's because I'm adopted, but there's blood family but there's also the family that you choose – people that you have an intense relationship with...

I do want a family one day, two or three children... I'm gay, so, a partner. The person I'm with now, we joke back and forth about this... adoption is one option, and trying to have it biologically is another option. But then there comes the issue of surrogate parents and what you want to do... do you want to ask, you know, your best friend, "Will you have my kid?"... it's kind of a strange request! ...I want at least one boy; the reason I want one boy is cause I can't do little girls' hair.

The perfect family, I think, has more to do with communication than the gender of the parents or the children.

The attitude that I've taken about telling people I'm gay is essentially, if I feel comfortable enough with a person, I don't mind sharing... It's been a very long time since I've lied and told people that I'm straight...

I interned for two years with the Anti Defamation League... so I have very strong feelings towards discrimination. I don't feel it's right. While I admit that I'm not perfect... every opportunity that you have to try and change something or redirect something in terms of discrimination— I'm there. Because – there's no proper way of saying it – it sucks.

I'm in college and I plan on taking my education all the way. A masters degree or doctorate. Right now I'm studying forensic psychology, but I also have an interest in law so I'm gonna get an undergraduate in forensic psychology and then try to move in to law school.

As an AIDS educator I know the notion that teenagers shouldn't be having sex is dismissable because what people should do and what people do do are two different things. My personal opinion is... if it's a great feeling to be close to the person that's one thing, but if it's to have an orgasm and move on, that's another. And you need to be really clear about that, first with yourself then hopefully with the other person.

I have a strong belief in God. I once read a story about a person interpreting God in the same way that blind men interpret an elephant, and they've never seen an elephant. If blind men all walked up to different parts of an elephant and began feeling around they'd feel different things; it'd still be the same elephant. So I would never say that one particular group or religion is right and others are wrong; I'd say that we're all trying to get to the same place and just using different roads.

>The best thing about being a teenager is surprising people when they have expectations of you and you exceed them; you go past what people think you're capable of.

I'm definitely planning on having an impact on the world.