Center Blog

Terry Boggis, Director of Center Kids, Center Families

I was going to write about Pride, how it looks for LGBT families in New York City – the gatherings in parks, the marches, and our 21st annual Center Kids, Center Families Pride Picnic on June 27 (this year, featuring entertainment from “Shrek: The Musical“!) – but today, I can’t help but be distracted from the spirit of celebration by the heartbreaking murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita this weekend.

For the past six years, New York’s LGBT Community Center has been the central organizing point for a coalition-building, movement-building project called Causes in Common: Reproductive Justice and LGBT Liberation, which makes the connections between the shared work and struggle for choice and privacy, yes, but also for access to comprehensive, competent  reproductive health services, for autonomy in matters of sexuality and reproduction, for safety, affordability, privacy, and access, all in the context of a social justice and human rights framework.  Our network now includes over 140 LGBT and reproductive health and rights advocacy organizations, and Dr. Tiller’s killing impacts every one of us.

In many regions of the country, doctors willing to perform abortions are virtually nonexistent. In every region of the country, abortion providers and the patients they serve are picketed and threatened with violence, including here in the biggest city in the liberal northeast. And those of us who are students of history or old enough to remember know that elimination of services won’t eliminate the determination of desperate women to end pregnancies – they will just resort to dangerous, often deadly means to do so.

And it’s not just about abortion, or “choice” vs. “life”, or some other hopelessly reductionist frame. It’s about external forces – government, ideology, religion, fanaticism – walking into our bedrooms, our doctors’ offices, our emergency rooms and clinics, our relationships and families, our lives – and taking over, deciding for us who gets to have children and who doesn’t and when we can have them, who receives services and who doesn’t, the methods we are permitted to employ to create our families, which families count as legitimate and which do not, which lives matter and which ones don’t.

Dr. Tiller’s assassination is a blow to all of us who advocate for the right to create and define and value our families, in an atmosphere of safety and security. Before we celebrate, we mourn.

Terry Boggis, Director, Center Kids, Center Families

Tonight in NYC: Vigil to Remember Dr. George Tiller (nownyc.org)

More information on Center Kids, Center Families is at gaycenter.org/families

Happy Pride Month! The Center will be kicking off Pride Month this weekend, and we would love it if you would join us!  We’ll be at Staten Island Pride on Saturday 6/6 and Queens Pride on Sunday 6/7. Sign up to volunteer at Pride events with the Center or check out the Center’s list of Pride events at gaycenter.org/pride. Find Staten Island Pride on Facebook and Queens Pride on Facebook, and invite your friends!

On Wednesday 6/3, the third annual Transgender Health Fair is happening here at the Center.  Some of the organizations participating in this year’s fair include Anti-Violence Project, Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, Community Healthcare Network, Empire State Pride Agenda, GMHC, Hispanic AIDS Forum, Housing Works, Imperial Court of New York, The Center, NYAGRA, PFLAG NYC, Positive Health Project, SAGE, Saint Vincent’s, Trans Empowerment, TransJustice/Audre Lorde Project, and many more! Come for free health screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, mental health and more.  Transgender-specific health information will be available, as will information on smoking cessation, nutrition, health insurance and more. We’ll also be featuring Medicaid enrollment. More information is at Transgender Health Fair, and you can RSVP on Facebook.

Trans Health Fair, Wednesday, June 3, 5:30-7:30PM

If you’re disappointed and angry about last week’s Prop 8 decision, attend a meeting this Wednesday 6/3 at the Center.  There is a Marriage Equality New York’s (MENY) General Meeting and a Civil Rights Front Monthly Meeting on Wednesday 6/3.  Today 6/1 is the last day to enter a video in Project Pushback, our marriage equality video contest (a joint project with the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center) – win $2,500 while supporting marriage equality!

Not only is this the first week of Pride – it’s also Internet Week New York.  The Center is hosting an Internet Week event on Thursday 6/4, Social Media for Non-Profits.  Check out all the Internet Week events happening this week 6/1-6-8.

Check out all of our upcoming events at the Center Calendar, which is quite packed this month!  And get the latest updates via Twitter and Facebook.