Unpublished

By Bill Burleson

This last spring I visited the New York LGBT Center. Located in the heart of Greenwich Village, the center is an old three-story building in the middle of a block. In many ways, it’s not much to look at; however, it is quite the place to be. People were coming and going; activities were taking place all over the building; it was alive. It truly was a “community center” in every sense of the word.

Fast forward to September. About 20 people gathered at Sabathani for one of several meetings envisioning a GLBT community center of our own. “We’ve been talking about it for ten years,” says Ann DeGroot, Executive Director of Outfront Minnesota, the state-wide GLBT organization.

If you’re not familiar with Outfront, it’s time you are. The non-profit has been around for twenty years offering programming such as domestic violence counseling, an anti-violence program, a legal program, a speaker’s bureau, work in public policy, and, my personal favorite: a phone list of about 150 GLBT organizations throughout the state and the go-to web site for community groups. It has been, and continues to be, a GLBT community center without walls.

Well, DeGroot and company are working to add the walls.

It all started with the city’s desire to develop the “meter farm,” a strange little parcel of land between Nicollet and First Avenue on 15^th Street that’s something of a metered parking lot. There were a number of ideas for what to do with the land, but with City Councilmember Lisa Goodman’s support the plan that’s risen to the top was DeGroot’s vision of a GLBT community center. Now Outfront has the backing of Mayor Rybak and Councilman Robert Lilligren, among others, for building GLBT community center from the ground up. It’s looking good.

We met at Sabathani in September to help develop an image of what a community center could be. Not necessarily what it would look like, although we talked about that too. Nor what programs would be offered, but there was an opportunity for discussion of that also. It was more a discussion about what does a GLBT community center feel like, what are our hopes and aspirations for a physical home of our own.

The data from that and other meetings like it hasn’t been compiled yet (DeGroot expects it will be released in December or January), however, that hasn’t stopped DeGroot from listening and learning and using her 20 years at the helm of Outfront to inform her vision of a community center. Key, according to DeGroot, is that “everyone is welcome, regardless of orientation.” She adds, “We have never envisioned it as the place where all the gay stuff happens.”

That said, why do we need a community center?

According to DeGroot, while the situation for GLBT people has improved over the years, “it’s still not acceptable” in many parts of our world. “We need a place to go to be out and safe…A simple thing but critical.”

I agree. While the changes we’ve enjoyed over my lifetime may affect what may go on in a community center, it hasn’t lessened the need one bit. Violence still happens. We still need a place to come out. We still need a place to help us discover what this all means in a world ready with images both positive and many not so positive of being G, L, B, or T. We need a center as a place where GLBT resources and activism, history and the future, live.

And our public agrees: Outfront did an on-line poll, and found 91% supported the idea of a center, and 72% said they were likely to use or visit it.

And there’s another reason to have a center. “To strengthen what we already do,” DeGroot says. There is so much already going on in our community, and so many people doing great work, here is an opportunity for “a home. A home for their ideas.”

However, it’s not a done deal. The biggest hurdles are, according to DeGroot, “Just putting it together.” Right now it is in the “pre-development” phase. Look for opportunities to become involved in making a center for all of us. And yes, it will involve a capital campaign. “We are talking not in the thousands but in the millions.”

“This is something we can build for the community,” says DeGroot. It will be a “positive thing for the community and for those who come after us.”

While it may not be Greenwich Village, it will be our center.

Says, DeGroot: “I’m just jazzed.”