Center Blog

Cheryl Boyce Taylor

The evening started with a series of reading and intermittent singing from poet Rajiv Mohabir. He conveyed a powerful and thematic poem about coming out to his grandmother in a poem titled, “You can’t stop a river from running”. He then carried his “river” theme through space and time, as he took his audience from rivers in India, the United Kingdom, Florida, and finally the Hudson River, each river marking a rite of passage in his life.

Then poet Thereece Irradiance Thomas took the audience through a powerful journey of confidence, defiance, and unity. Her poem “Assumption” charged the audience to be empowered, while her poem “Kept Illusion” called for strength and unity. By integrating a streak of sexuality, a hint of oppression, and hue of race, Thereece Irradiance Thomas uses her poems as a tool to awaken and strengthen those who are oppressed and victimized.

Poet and fiction writer Anton Nimblett colored the evening with a theme we are all very familiar with: desire. He read an excerpt from his fiction novel “Sections of an orange,” where the narrator is posing half-naked for a barber who is also a photographer. Anton Nimblett gives such vivid and detailed descriptions, one can actually feel every touch, every move, and every impulse of the narrator.

Then poet Ysanne K. Latchman brought a collection of experiences from her childhood through womanhood. Most striking of her reading was a poem titled “No thank you, I will pass,” where she shed light on a common experience for all New Yorkers: cooking smells. Her incandescent account of smelling her neighbor cooking bacalao reminds all of us that as New Yorkers, we experience cultures that are thousands of miles away, everyday.

And finally, poet Cheryl Boyce Taylor took the audience on a ride through her memory lane, from the day she left her home country to her experiences as an ex-patriot. She cleverly intertwines various themes about daily routines, internal struggles, and innocence in a seemingly complicated subject of nostalgia and identity. Her poem title “Piaco” illustrates a conflicted, yet curious child ready to embark on a new experience as she leaves her home country, while her poem “Reaching Trinidad” flash forwards decades later painting the experiences of a woman visiting her “home” country.

These five poets brought together a colorful array of experiences, feelings, and senses, all embodied in beautiful poems and works of art presented as a string of memories. As immigrants to this country and emigrants of their home lands, their writings carried an undertone of longing a time and space forever lost. Not only were they uprooted from their home countries,  they were also uprooted from their childhoods. In their works, one could feel equal parts of challenge and excitement in adjusting to a new environment, language, and customs, all of which influenced and shaped their experiences as queer immigrants.

The Center is extremely sad to hear that our friend and tireless supporter Mark “Spanky” Bialous has passed away this week after battling cancer.

Spanky was a beloved member of Team Eagle, an amazing group of cyclists who consistently raise the most money for the Center’s annual Braking the Cycle fundraiser, a three-day bike ride from Boston to New York, which supports the Center’s vital HIV/AIDS Services. Team Eagle raised a hundred thousand dollars for the Center in 2010.

He was truly a special character and a few of his friends shared these wonderful Braking the Cycle memories about him:

“He had all of his outfits custom made for the ride and they had labels inside that said “petite” because ‘when you go custom they’ll do anything you want.’ He was about 6′6″”

“One night at dinner in PA on the old G’burg/NYC route, ride organizer Eric Epstein was making his announcements and a cell phone started ringing. It was Spanky’s who of course was dressed up like a French maid. As you and I both know, pockets are not always available so he had it shoved down his cleavage. He dug it out – seriously – whole arm down the front of his dress and got it turned off. He was 20 shades of red. About 30 seconds later Eric was back doing his announcements talking about route safety or hydration or something and Spanky’s phone said “message received” with perfect timing.”

The Center extends its deepest condolences to Spanky’s family, friends and his comrades on Team Eagle. He will never be far from our hearts and we’ll be remembering him fondly on this year’s Braking the Cycle ride.

Location:
Buckley Funeral Home
509 Second Avenue
Asbusy Park, NJ

In In the last four months two people were hurt and two were killed in a rash of vicious anti-gay attacks in New York City.  The most recent attack happened this past Sunday morning, March 27, here in the West Village. Damian Furtch was brutally attacked by two men outside of a McDonalds who yelled anti-gay slurs.  Furtch sustained facial injuries and required stitches.  Just a few weeks ago the Center spoke out about another horrific hate crime incident in Queens, which claimed the life of Anthony Collao. The Center joined Anti-Violence Project (AVP) and a host of other local organizations in co-sponsoring a vigil for Collao on March 24.   As reported by the AVP:

On March 12, five men entered a party in Woodhaven, Queens, shouting anti-gay slurs and brutally attacked 18-year old Anthony Collao when he tried to flee. Collao died from the injuries he sustained. Collao did not identify as gay; however, this did not stop his alleged assailants from making an assumption about his identity and targeting him for violence.

Two others were attacked in February incidents in Brooklyn and Staten Island.  According to AVP on February 22, Barie Shortell, a 29-year old gay man, was viciously beaten in Williamsburg, Brooklyn by a group shouting anti-gay slurs. On February 26, Staten Island resident Ronald Jones beat and choked his friend, Robert Jenkins, to death. Jones has told police that he was driven into a murderous rage by Jenkins’ unwanted sexual advances.  AVP released this statement about the incidents:

“Recent attacks in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and now the West Village shows us that violence affects all of us,” said Sharon Stapel, Executive Director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project. “This is a wake-up call for every New Yorker: we must work to end violence this culture of violence—and not just violence against LGBTQ people—but all violence. We can end violence through the conversations we have, the relationships we build, and the connections we make. Together we can make our city safer for all people.”

The Center joins AVP’s Executive Director Sharon Stapel in denouncing all of these attacks, and continues to call on our community to condemn violent acts rooted in homophobia.  We send our heartfelt sympathies to all of the victims and to the families of Anthony Collao and Robert Jenkins. We also remind the community that the Center is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year as a safe and welcoming space for LGBT people to be who they are.   Visit our website to find out more about our lifesaving programs and services.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center is pleased to announce the appointment of Nicole Avallone as the Center’s new Director of Youth Services. In this capacity, she will oversee our Youth Enrichment Services (YES) program staff and the coordination, implementation and delivery of the spectrum of educational, developmental, prevention and support interventions offered by YES.

Avallone is a social worker with an extensive history of providing support and advocacy to the LGBT community. Most recently she served as Director of Member Services & Outreach at the Rainbow Heights Club, the only government funded psychosocial club specifically geared toward serving LGBT adults living with mental illness.

Avallone’s professional career included a year-long internship with the Center’s Adult Services Department in 2003-2004. Since that time she has continued to facilitate groups for the Center’s Gender Identity Project, primarily focusing on support for partners of transgender people. She began her career in social services as an advocate for young people living on the streets and in shelters in Seattle, Washington. 

“Avallone brings a powerful history, enormous energy and commitment to the mission of the Center,” said Carrie Davis, Director of Community Services. “She will be a genuine resource in the work we continue to do.”

This change comes in the context of the development of the new Community Services Department that began in the fall of 2010. The new Community Services Department is working to improve participant services through freer internal transfers of talents and resources, and expanding program reach and infrastructure to better serve our communities. The department is also developing new services designed to address the needs of underserved or “gap” populations and enhance our focus on the Center’s mission and strategic plan.

In April, Center Families will embark on The Parenting Journey, a 12-week education and support group designed to help parents and prospective parents answer these questions by exploring how their past and present experiences influence their parenting styles today. Developed by a team of family systems therapists and counselors at the Family Center, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts, The Parenting Journey was designed to ensure a safe and nurturing space for members to explore their own parenting voyage.

Every week, through the traditional family ritual of dinner, we examine what it means to be a nurtured and nurturing parent. The program’s emphasis is on the parent as a person, and what they are feeling, thinking and choosing to do, rather than on the child or the parent-child disciplinary relationship.

Through our own personal stories we begin to link the emotional experiences of our past with our cognitive understanding of ourselves as parents today.  We examine the attitudes and behaviors that enhance good parenting, such as respect, supporting and helping each other, having a compassionate ear, and being curious.

The program is based on the notion that parenthood is a fluid, on-going process that begins in childhood.  Effective child-rearing does not happen only once, nor is it steady. Rather it is a lifetime endeavor that, much like any job, has its ups and down, and successes and failures.

Who is The Parenting Journey for?

• The Parent Journey at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center is for LGBTQ parents and prospective parents seeking community and support.
• It is for LGBTQ parents and prospective parents whose upbringing may not have provided them with the emotional sustenance they needed to be good parents.
• It is for LGBTQ parents and prospective parents who are willing to examine the essential relationships in their lives and their impact on parenting.

How can I sign-up for The Parenting Journey?

To take part, please email centerfamilies@gaycenter.org or call Jessica at (212) 620-7310 x 228. There is a $20 suggestion donation per session.

We welcome you to explore your own personal Parenting Journey with us,

In Peace and Solidarity,

Shanequa Anderson, LMSW, MPA, CASAC & Jessica García
Parenting Journey Co-Facilitators

Testimonial from past Parenting Journey participant:

The Parent Journey has taught me the preciousness of a mother’s role in her child’s life and looking behind the facade.  -Joy

Last week staff members from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center participated in New York State’s Latino AIDS Advocacy Day in Albany. George Fesser, LMSW, coordinator of the Center’s LGBT Immigrant Services, along with other activists from across the state urged the Governor, members of the Assembly, state senators, and officials from the New York State Department of Health to increase their commitment to maintaining a healthy New York, specifically focusing on Latinos impacted by HIV/AIDS and other health conditions. 

Latino Commision on AIDS

According to 2008 data, there are 126,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in New York, and Latinos make up 31percent of this population despite making up only 16.3 percent of all New Yorkers. In our current political and economic environment, it is important to enhance the state’s comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, and our staff reminded members of the new Cuomo Administration of the necessity to respond to the public health crisis fueled by HIV/AIDS and other health challenges. 

In addition to participating in Latino Advocacy Day, the Center’s George Fesser and his colleague Cristina Herrera, a Gender Identity Project Counselor, also delivered workshops at the Latino Commission on AIDS Reunion Latina 2011 Training Institute.  This year’s theme:  “Addressing HIV/AIDS in the Context of Health Care Reform.” Herrera’s workshop focused on working with adolescents, TransLatina health and sexuality and building unity within our diversity.  Fesser presented information on HIV prevention and treatment; healthcare and public policy; and migrant/immigrant health issues.

The Center is committed to sharing our expertise on vital topics that directly affect our diverse constituency and building a wider community of support at conferences and gatherings like those held in Albany last week. We can make significant change in our world through sustained education and advocacy efforts.

On February 16, the Center Authors series presented the first of a three part series focused on Queer Nerds. For the “Yaoi for Beginners” installment, Ray Cha, editor of FAQNP: FAQNP’s A Queer Nerd Publication, discussed and showed examples of this popular subgenre of manga (Japanese comics) and anime (Japanese animation).
Yaoi focuses on boy love romances and is primarily targeted towards women (as opposed to the Bara genre which is created specifically for gay men). It also tends to be written by women.

To help illustrate the genre, Cha screened two examples. Junjo Romantica dates back to 2002 in manga form and 2008 in its anime version. The stories, written by Shungiku Nakamura, have three couples at its core. In the episode shown on couple was featured—Hiroki, an associate college professor, and Norwaki, a med student four years younger than Hiroki. As is common in Yaoi, in the span of the 20-minute episode the couple went back and forth between “I love you” and “I hate you” several times.The second program, Ouran High School Host Club, written by Bisco Hatori, debuted in magna in 2002 and went into anime in 2006. This series has element of Yaoi included, along side other manga/anime genres. Of interest to the Yaoi enthusiasts is the relationship between twins Hikaru and Kaoru, who often use “forbidden brotherly love” to entertain the female customers of the host club.

Cha explained that while Yaoi started out as a genre for women, often written by women, it became mainstream entertainment with some Yaoi anime series airing during prime time on Japanese TV. Over the last twenty years, as magna and anime has grown in the US, the genre has grown in popularity here as well.
While Japan is still fairly homophobic due to its conservative nature, the Yaoi genre thrives because it is considered “safe” with the characters insulated in their own world that would likely not manifest itself in the real world. Cha likened it to the slash fiction genre where characters are plucked from pop culture and into romantic situations that don’t happen within their regular contexts, such as Star Trek’s Kirk and Spock having a romantic relationship.

The Queer Nerds series continues in March with Cha digging into the Center’s Archive to show examples of queer nerds in LGBT history. In May the series wraps up with the launch party for the latest issue of FAQNP.

Written by Jeff Adams

This morning  the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center was thrilled to hear that New York City has implemented measures to ensure that transgender people have equal access to marriage licenses.  As part of that effort the Office of the City Clerk is instituting training for all City Clerk staff to ensure they are culturally competent on issues relating to gender identity and expression; the office reached out to the Center for our guidance and expertise in this area in early February. Today  the Center’s Director of Community Services, Carrie Davis, a social worker and expert on gender identity issues, conducted the first of several trainings for City Clerk employees happening throughout the Month of March.

The changes were enacted after a transgender couple was refused a marriage license  in 2009 and sought the help of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.  As NBC reported:

The transgender woman, who had been born as a male, and her opposite sex partner, who was born female, were denied a license to marry at the Bronx office of the City Clerk in December 2009. When the pair supplied identification, a worker in the clerk’s office asked for birth certificates in addition to the ID.

New Yorkers seeking marriage licenses are not required to show birth certificates if they produce government-issued photo ID.

After the couple threatened legal action and sought help from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, City Clerk Michael McSweeney told employees this week that all marriage license applicants must be treated with dignity, and that transgendered applicants only need to produce the same ID as anyone else.

Quinn said Tuesday that the decision “ensures that all New Yorkers will be treated equally, and with the dignity and respect they deserve from a government agency.”

“Transgender people are challenged all the time about their status as men and women,” said Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund. “We applaud the City Clerk’s office for adopting this policy and for taking steps to ensure that this does not happen again.”

You can learn more about the work that led to this change here. 

The Center’s Training Institute offers specialized training sessions for professionals who work with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the New York City area. Achieving culturally competent training to work with the LGBT community is essential to conducting business in a city as diverse as New York. Our series of trainings has been carefully developed to offer important information, resources, and creative skills to help enhance the lives of LGBT clients. You can  learn more by watching this video from our Gender Identity Project.  ”Transgender Basics” is  a 20 minute educational film on concepts of gender and transgender people and we are showing the film to the City Clerk staff as part of our training with them.

The Center applauds the efforts of Speaker Christine Quinn and TLDEF and commends the city for taking this step to ensure that transgender New Yorkers applying for marriage licenses will be treated equally from now on, and look forward to continuing our training sessions.

Wednesday evening, February 23, the Center, in conjunction with the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, hosted an event titled “Allure, Desire & the African-American Model.” The program featured photographers Ripp Bowman & JD Dragan, who specialize in capturing images of black men. There was a cocktail hour where guests got to socialize & look at examples of the artists’ work adorning the walls of the Lerner Auditorium. Following that was a panel discussion moderated by Steven Broadway (also known as the artist Boyway), an accomplished artist in his own right from Nepal. 3 models who have posed for the artists were also featured.

The panel discussion was lively as the artists discussed doing this type of work long before Robert Mapplethorpe put images of black men on the map, so to speak. Also discussed were issues of exploitation & the oversexualization of black men. What are the boundaries between art, erotica & pornography? The models spoke about their own motivations for posing, generally exhibitionism, for the money, or some combination thereof. There was much food for thought &, hopefully, this is a dialogue that will be continued at some point.

Enjoy these pictures from the event:

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center is mourning the passing of New York based Chloe Dzubilo, a fierce, frontline transgender activist and friend. Chloe died several days ago.   She was a beacon of light and touched the lives of numerous people at the Center for many years. Our thoughts and prayers are with Chloe’s family and friends.

You can read more at this facebook memorial page and in this heartfelt note by her friend Viva Ruiz posted by Villlge Voice Columnist, Michael Musto. Lori E. Seid also posted this poignant blog about Chloe which included a beautiful quote from Chloe while she was alive:

“Ain’t nothing like knowin’ what it feels like…when you slip thru the cracks of society, political niceties, political correctness, health care, housing, employment, wealth, shoe stores, subways, family outings, holidays, systems, systems, Systems. Ain’t nothing like knowing these facts deep in one’s bones. When you’re transsexual. Ain’t nothing like knowing triumph over all of these adversities.” – Chloe Dzubilo