In This Issue
- SE Wisconsin Center's Billboard Campaign
- Memphis Center Billboard Campaign Vandalized
- Brooklyn Center Finds Home at Borough Hall
- LA Center Receives Federal Funds for Elder Services
What is Center Links?
From fighting for equality, to serving diverse needs, creating a safe space, and building community and unity, LGBT community centers are the backbone of the LGBT movement. Center Links is the monthly newsletter to see highlights of what is happening every day at centers all over. Center Links is in your mailbox the 10th of every month.About CenterLink
CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers was formed in 1994 to support the development of strong, sustainable LGBT community centers and to build a unified center movement. Learn more at www.LGBTcenters.org
Submit Your Story
CenterLink members can submit their stories to be featured in an upcoming issue of CenterLinks, and we will do our best to include them. Please submit to Guido Sanchez, guido@LGBTcenters.org
Center of SE Wisconsin Sponsors Ground-Breaking Billboard Campaign
Whether they're lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, the stated message remains unchanged: "Family. It's all about love!"
Sponsored by the LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin in partnership with the Cream City Foundation and nearly 40 community organizations, the billboard facing north, 400 feet south of County Road KR in Kenosha/Racine, is one of many to be found throughout the metropolitan Milwaukee area as part of Cream City Foundation's Gay Neighbor campaign.
Transit signs, paper and digital billboards, and Spanish language signage direct commuters and passersby to www.GayNeighbor.org, where they are encouraged to learn more about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues and to read stories of real-life LGBT people or the people that love them actually living within our community.
"Putting a face on an issue that some people may find complicated or difficult to comprehend often helps us to realize how much we have in common and how petty some of our differences really may be," says Dr. Bruce Joffe, the LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin's Executive Director. "That's why we wanted to sponsor this message on such a busy road in our area: to promote our shared humanity and values held in common."
Memphis Center Military Billboard Campaign Vandalized
More energized than ever before, that's the message from the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center, days after a billboard was vandalized. Now, a rally is in the works to channel those feelings of outrage.
Resentment, disappointment, shock, and anger are all safe ways to describe how Will Batts feels. But it won't get the best of him, at least, not in the form of revenge. He has a more peaceful plan of attack that will unfold this weekend.
"We are more
int
erested, we are more committed to speaking out than ever before in
reaction to this, this will not keep us quiet," says Batts, Executive
Director.
Batts is still in shock.
"I felt sick to my stomach, I was angry, I'm still a little angry about it, I can't say I'm completely surprised by it, but it is a little shocking that it would happen so quickly cause the billboard had just been up a week or 10 days."
The targeted billboard, one of 5 purchased around the city, featured Memphian Tim Smith. "This particular content is a former Marine who was removed from the service under the don't ask, don't tell." Read more by clicking here.
Brooklyn Community Pride Center Finds Home At Borough Hall
Last Thursday, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz joined members of the LGBT community at Brooklyn Borough Hall to announce a major partnership with the nonprofit Brooklyn Community Pride Center (BCPC) that will provide community programming and support services for LGBT Brooklynites as progress continues on establishing the borough’s first LGBT center.
While fundraising and location searches for the center continue, volunteers with BCPC will work with the Borough President’s Office to provide outreach and programs and services to LGBT residents. Last month, a gathering at Borough Hall addressed the issues of the transgendered community and the law, and next month a session will be held to assist LGBT youth.
“It’s unimaginable that Brooklyn, the most populous borough of New York City, is the last to have its own LGBT community center,” said Thomas Smith, president of the BCPC’s Board of Directors. “This important community resource will provide support groups, information, and other much-needed services for LGBT Brooklynites — everyone from the 11-year-old gay son living in public housing and being teased at school in Central Brooklyn to the Park Slope retiree who just lost her partner of 35 years and has nowhere to turn.” Read more by clicking here.
Federal Government Awards $380K Grant to L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center for Senior Services
The U.S. Administration on Aging has given the L.A. Gay & Lesbian
Center an historic three-year grant, valued at $380,000 in the first
year, to expand its Seniors Services Department, one of the Center's
fastest growing programs. It's the first such award to an LGBT
organization.
The much-needed funds will enable the Center to better meet the
unique needs of the growing number of LGBT people over the age of 50,
many of whom feel lonely or isolated because they are closeted about
their sexual orientation or gender identity and because few have the
support of children or other family members.