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Welcome to the latest edition of Front and Center. This week we’ll recap our Immigration Fair and explain how the event helps LGBT immigrants find a brighter future. Plus, the nationally syndicated Derek and Romaine Show helps us kick-off Cycle for the Cause, The Northeast AIDS Ride—18 Years Strong. Finally, a Florida high school student travels all the way to New York to use the Center’s National History Archive for an LGBT related history project. Please enjoy reading these stories, and thank you for your support.

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Center's Immigration Fair Connects LGBT Immigrants to a Brighter Future

In early April the Center hosted our "Fourth Annual LGBTQ Immigration Fair," a gathering that connected LGBT immigrants to dozens of service providers that can address their unique challenges in finding housing, health care, legal support, and employment. The Center's Services for LGBT Immigrants' Social Action Group organized the event, and thanks to their hard work hundreds of people walked away with life-saving connections. Immigrants in New York City make up nearly 40 percent of the population, and LGBT immigrants come to the Center from all over the world, seeking solace, safety and a better life. We are committed to lifting them up, so they may achieve their aspirations.



The Derek and Romaine Show Boosts Awareness for Center's Cycle for the Cause

On Monday, April 16, the nationally syndicated Sirius XM radio program, The Derek and Romaine Show, helped the Center kick off our AIDS ride season by broadcasting live from our building for four-hours, and using the opportunity to showcase the importance of our HIV/AIDS related programs and services that have helped thousands of people over the last three decades. Guests included country music star, Chely Wright, and playwright, Terence McNally, along with our Executive Director, Glennda Testone and the President and CEO of LeadDog Marketing Group, Inc. The show also highlighted Center staff member, Jordan Wishner who runs our Newly Diagnosed HIV+ Group, and a young client named Joseph, who credits our youth program for keeping him HIV negative. Cycle for the Cause, The Northeast AIDS Ride—18 Years Strong, is set for Boston to New York September 21-23. Last year The Derek and Romaine Show raised over 40 thousand dollars for the Center through this event. This year the show vows to raise 100 thousand. The Center is extremely grateful for their dedication to our services and wishes the show’s cycling team, Outspoken, the best of luck in this year’s event! You can sign up to ride or crew here: Cycle for the Cause



High School Student Travels Here from Florida to Access the Center's Archive

Following the advice of Stonewall historian David Carter, high school student Nick Gupta and his parents traveled all the way to New York City from their home in Pensacola, Florida to interview the Center’s archivist and historian, Rich Wandel, about the early days of the post-Stonewall movement. Nick was required to use primary sources for his exhibit on LGBT History, which he entered into a local history competition. He won, and is now on his way to the Florida State competition. If he places there he will move on to the National History Day Contest this summer in College Park, Maryland. We are very pleased that the Center’s LGBT archive helped this student, who is an LGBT ally, to achieve the award, and wish him the best of luck as he vies for statewide and potentially national honors in history. For more than two decades the Center’s archive has worked to preserve our communities' heritage, making it accessible through regular exhibits, publications and scholarly research activities. Learn more about the archive here:Archive