Center Blog

The Center’s Youth Enrichment Services program created a zine for Pride 2009 that is now available for download. The zine, entitled OutSpoken Views, was born from the YES Zine Group, which meets every Tuesday from 4:00-5:00 PM at the Center.

The purpose of the group is to give LGBT youth the chance to express themselves through a page of writing or other form of art. The YES Zine Group has included poetry, a letter, an LGBT survival guide, and more inspirational clips of writing in their colorful and creative online flipbook. Some of the themes addressed are self identity, pride, equality and love. Download the zine here!

Click below to see photographs from Dancing on the Beach 9.

The Center’s 9th annual tea dance, Dancing on the Beach 9, was held in East Hampton on July 25, 2009.

You can also see the photos on Flickr or see the photos on Facebook.

The members of Other Countries, a New York City-based black gay men’s writing collective, mourn the death of E. Lynn Harris. Since the 1991 publication of his landmark novel, Invisible Life, E. Lynn’s masterful storytelling gave the world a window into the lives of black gay men, and provided a measure of visibility for black gay men in real life, particularly in the black community. His work was always entertaining, and in the best tradition of good storytellers, his popular, sexually-conflicted character Basil Henderson was a person many readers struggled with, but at the same time wanted to read more about. E. Lynn’s novels placed the lives of black gay men within the black community, not outside of it as they are often depicted by the media. The best-selling novels of E. Lynn, along with those of novelist Terry McMillan, were influential in convincing mainstream publishers that black people will buy and read books in large numbers.

E. Lynn was a great supporter of new writers through his E. Lynn Harris Better Days Literary Foundation. His anthology, Freedom in This Village (2004), presented the work of a range of black gay male writers. E. Lynn Harris opened the door to writing and publishing for many black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender writers. Even with his death that door remains open, and we believe we can best honor his memory by continuing to give the world new and interesting stories.

July 26, 2009
New York City

Bruce Anderson, Interim Executive Director

The Center’s Board President and Interim Executive Director, Bruce Anderson, made the following statement about the inclusion of the death penalty in hate crimes legislation:

“The Center has been on record as an anti-death penalty organization since 1999, a position prompted by the outcry by some in our community for the death penalty for Matthew Shepard’s murderers. To attach a death penalty provision to a bill carrying Matthew Shepard’s name does his memory no justice. The Center believes that the application of the death penalty is inordinately biased and serves no useful purpose as a deterrent. The use of sexual orientation as a reason to call for the death penalty further exacerbates our historic position as people the judicial system treats unfairly and often without regard for our basic human rights. Putting someone to death for the murder of an LGBT person doesn’t “elevate” the LGBT community to equal status in this country. It demeans us. The answer to homophobic violence is not more violence. It is education.”

Read statements from other organizations:

National Center for Lesbian Rights: A Statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell on the Death Penalty Amendment to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force: Task Force Action Fund urges for removal of death penalty amendment from Department of Defense authorization bill

Read more about the inclusion of the death penalty in hate crimes legislation:

LGBT Hate Crimes Bill Foes Add Death Penalty Measure to Derail Bill, Towelroad, July 21, 2009

Senator Sessions Looking to Add “Poison Pill” Amendments to Hate Crimes Legislation, Pam’s House Blend, July 20, 2009

Watch what the Center’s Bruce Anderson, Board President and Interim Executive Director, has to say about the 40th anniversary of Stonewall in this video:

The Stonewall Riots: 40 Years Later, Regional News Network (RNN)

From Regional News Network (RNN):

In the wake of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a look at the present and future of the gay rights movement

LGBT Health Needs in 2009: Free Panel Discussion
Monday, July 20

Have questions on your healthcare benefits? Do you know about the free resources available to you right in your neighborhood? Do you know your health care rights as an LGBT employee? What does the future of healthcare look like under the Obama administration, and how will it affect coverage?

Join health care professionals and providers for a discussion on current healthcare needs of our community. LGBT individuals have unique needs that are not always addressed, and we live in a complex, ever-changing environment of rules and laws. This is your opportunity to ask the questions and address issues that directly affect your most important asset, your health.

Please register on our website now!

Monday, July 20, 2009
6-7:30 pm
@ The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center

6:00 pm Open Bar*
6:30 pm Program and Networking Reception

Price Free

Andrés Hoyos		Pablo McCabe		Ady Ben-Israel
Bisher Akil		Marjorie Schulman		Felix Lopez

Moderator
Andres Hoyos, MS, LMSW
Associate Director, Center CARE
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center

Panelists

Bisher Akil, MD, Medical Director
NYMD

Ady Ben-Israel, MA, LMSW, Associate Director, Center CARE
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center

Felix Lopez, Director, Legal Department
Gay Men’s Health Crisis

Pablo McCabe, Employee Assistance Program Association NYC Chapter Member

Marjorie Schulman, M.D., Senior Medical Director
Aetna

This program has been generously underwritten by

Produced in Partnership with

*Alcoholic & non-alcoholic beverages will be available.

Check out the photos of the Center’s contingent in the NYC LGBT Pride March!  You can tag your friends in the photos on Facebook, and you can watch the slideshow on Flickr!

Check out this episode of GRITtv with Laura Flanders about progressive politics and the LGBT movement–including the Center’s role!  The Center’s former Executive Director, Richard Burns, discusses the LGBT movement with three other leaders.  The segment ends with footage of last week’s Trans Day of Action, which was endorsed by the Center and included a Gender Identity Project contingent.  Watch it now:

From GRITtv with Laura Flanders:  Progressive Politics and the LGBT Movement:

What can the progressive movement learn from the LGBT community? On the 40^th anniversary of Stonewall there has been a good deal of reflection and soul searching on the role of the struggle for gay rights within the larger civil rights movement. Yesterday when Barack Obama met with gay couples in the White House he said, “It’s not for me to tell you to be patient any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half-century ago. We’ve been in office six months now. I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration.” That could be applied to a number of issues, not only those affecting the LGBT community.

Richard Burns, Chief Operating Officer of the Arcus Foundation, Naomi Clark of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Richard Kim, Associate Editor at The Nation, and independent journalist Nancy Goldstein on the role of LGBT politics within the progressive movement.