Center Blog

Cross posted from Joe. My. God.:  

National Equality March founder Cleve Jones spoke long and passionately to an enthusiastic overflow crowd at NYC’s LGBT Center last night. Numerous well-known activists were in attendance, including Brendan Fay, Gilbert Baker, Lt. Dan Choi, Brandon Brock, and Jeff Campagna, but the only real dissent came from Gay City News’ Andy Humm (pictured above on the right, Father Tony on the left). Humm demanded to know what the concrete goals of the March were, leading Jones to repeat his earlier call for “full civil equality in all 50 states.”

Mentioning complaints about the March’s short lead time, Jones criticized earlier March On Washington events (which had many notable problems), prompting the organizer of the 1987 MOW to lengthily defend its tactics. Jones responded by citing Facebook and other tools of the digital age as obviating the need for yearlong planning. Father Tony provides the video clip below of Jones opening his speech.

Labels: activism, Andy Humm, Cleve Jones, LGBT Community Center, National Equality March

See original post at http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/09/cleve-jones-at-nyc-lgbt-center.html

From the Center’s Youth Enrichment Services (YES) Program:

VIGIL ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2009
The LGBT Community Center in Tel Aviv (Municipal GLBT Community Center, The City of Tel Aviv-Yafo) was confronted with a dreadful attack this past weekend. On

Saturday night, a masked individual entered the LGBT center and opened fire, killing two young people and wounding another fifteen. The attack came in the middle of an LGBT youth support group gathering and many victims are in their teens. Current reports indicate police may have a lead on the individual.

What can we do?

Attend activities on Wednesday — Support our LGBT family by joining the
activities on Wednesday that start at YES at 5:30. See below for details.

Send an email — We would like to express our sincerest condolences to the LGBT Community Center in Tel Aviv, and ask you to do the same. Thoughts and condolences can be sent to CenterLink at CenterLink@LGBTcenters.org and we will forward those to the Center.

Make a card — As a way to support or LGBT family in Tel Aviv, consider making a card. As the youth in the hospital may be there for a while, it would really help to lift their spirits to receive mail from you.

This may bring up a lot of emotions for you. Please see a staff member or drop-in
counselor to talk about how you are feeling.

Schedule for Wednesday, August 5—you can join for any or all of the events!
5:30 — Meet at YES for poster/sign making and processing what happened.
6:30 — Leaving YES to walk down together to Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, 57 Bethune Street.
7:00 — Vigil starts at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, 57 Bethune Street.

More information at Center Calendar.

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.

This just in: we’re announcing the winners of Project Pushback, our marriage equality contest (our joint project with the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center).  Congratulations to Family Values, the Grand Prize winner and Blaire Wedding Project, the People’s Choice winner!

Grand Prize Winner:
Family Values by Andrew Putschoegl

People’s Choice Winner:
Blaire Wedding Project by Samantha Lavin and Lori Brener

Family Values was selected by the Project Pushback judges, from the 11 finalists, as the Grand Prize winner, earning creator Andrew Putschoegl the $2,500 grand prize! The $1,000 People’s Choice Award winner was Blaire Wedding Project, created by Samantha Lavin and Lori Brener.

Congratulations to Lisa R. who won the drawing for the Sony HD video camera.

Watch all of the entries here.

Learn more about Project Pushback.

Project Pushback, our marriage equality video project with the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, was featured on KNBC-LA (see the video below) and in an Advocate article.  Don’t forget to vote for your favorite video at equalityvideo.org!

KNBC-LA
Advocate
Project Pushback

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.

The California Supreme Court Upholds Prop 8;  Make Your Voice Heard at Day of Decision Protests Tonight
Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Today the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in California. “LGBT New Yorkers aren’t surprised to hear that Prop 8 was upheld today, but we’re certainly disappointed–and angry,” says the Center’s Interim Executive Director Bruce Anderson. “Yet at the same time, we’re buoyed at good news here on the East Coast and in the Midwest in recent weeks, and are more determined than ever to make New York a marriage state soon!”

The Center urges our community to protest the decision tonight at the Prop 8 Day of Decision Protest in Manhattan, just blocks away from the Center.

Get Involved Today:

> Participate in NYC’s Prop 8 Day of Decision Protest tonight at Sheridan Square (Christopher Street and 7th Avenue) in Manhattan at 6PM. Protesters will rally and then march to Union Square. Read more on the Center’s website, Facebook, or see maps of the protest locations).

> Not in NYC? Find a protest at dayofdecision.com

> Share this: Facebook • del.icio.us • Digg • Google • Yahoo! • Furl

Stay Involved Tomorrow:

> Submit a video to our Project Pushback video contest for marriage equality – deadline is June 1!

> Find out about upcoming marriage equality events in NYC on the Center’s website

> Get updates about marriage equality by becoming a fan of the Center on Facebook and by following the Center on Twitter

www.gaycenter.org/marriage

Then and Now Opening Reception, Thursday, May 28

If you’ve ever been to the Center’s Keith Haring Bathroom, you’ve seen some of the work of the 1989 Center Show.   This Thursday 5/28, check out the original artwork as well as new pieces by LGBT artists at Then and Now: An Exhibition Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Center Show.

On Saturday 5/30, the Center and the Bi Writers Association are hosting a free one-day summit on Putting the ‘B’ in LGBT to address bisexual inclusion and visibility within the LGBT movement.  As the Center’s Interim Executive Director Bruce Anderson noted, “Many people aren’t quite sure how the ‘B’ fits into LGBT.  As a result, mention of bisexual people often goes missing from discussion of LGBT rights issues.”

Genderqueer and interested in parenting?  Join  Center Kids, Center Families on Wednesday 5/27 for a Genderqueer Parenting Meet and Greet for parents and people interested in becoming parents.

Straightlaced Premiere, Tuesday, May 26

Tonight 5/26 is the NYC Premiere of Straightlaced–How Gender Has Got Us All Tied Up at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College (tickets or more info).  The Center is happy to be a community partner for this event!

Also, this is the last week to participate in the Center’s May Membership Drive!  Don’t miss your chance to earn free tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway Shows The 39 Steps, Irena’s Vow and The Marvelous Wonderettes. Recruit a new Center Member today!

Membership Drive: Join Now!

Broadway Impact — a “community of actors, directors, stage managers, fans, producers….united by the simple belief that anyone who wants to should be able to get married” — has organized a rally for marriage equality in New York State, and it’s happening this Sunday!  Here are all the details:

Date: Sunday, May 17th
Time: 5-7pm
Location: 6th Ave. and 45th St.

Appearances by:
Audra McDonald
Cheyenne Jackson
David Hyde Pierce
Gavin Creel
Kristin Davis
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn
Senator Tom Duane
Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell
The Cast of Hair

Rally Co-sponsors:
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
Broadway Impact
Civil Rights Front
Empire State Pride Agenda
Human Rights Campaign
Marriage Equality NY

“Send a clear message to our Senators that there’s no room for discrimination in the Empire State.”

More info at www.broadwayimpact.com