The Free to Be Youth Project was founded in 1994 as the Gay and Lesbian Youth Project by Peter Cicchino. After graduating from the University of Scranton in 1982, Peter joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). As a member he spent seven years working in soup kitchens, housing projects, and prisons. Upon leaving the Jesuits, Peter worked in a homeless shelter, taught Peace and Justice Studies at Fordham University, and was arrested over two dozen times in civil disobedience actions protesting U.S. policy in Central America, nuclear arms proliferation, and police brutality. Peter attended Harvard Law School and graduated in 1992, when he served as special death penalty clerk for a New Jersey Supreme Court judge who was a death penalty abolitionist, and assisted the American Civil Liberties Union in its lawsuit that struck down Colorado’s statewide referendum prohibiting gay rights legislation.​​​