In This Issue
- Welcome to Center Links
- Milwaukee Center's USPS Censorship
- Historical Figure at Compass Ball
- Affirmations Youth Receives National Award
- DC Center Mobilizes Against Cuts
What is Center Links?
From fighting for equality, serving diverse needs, creating a safe space, and building community and unity, LGBT community centers are the backbone of the LGBT movement. Center Links is the monthly newsletter to see highlights of what is happening every day.About CenterLink
CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers was formed in 1994 to support the development of strong, sustainable LGBT community centers and to build a unified center movement. Learn more at www.LGBTcenters.org
Submit Your Story
CenterLink members can submit their stories to be featured in an upcoming issue of CenterLinks, and we will do our best to include them. Please submit to Guido Sanchez, guido@LGBTcenters.org
Welcome to the Inaugural Issue of Center Links
Center Links is the newest e-newsletter created by popular demand from our e-subscribers.
Each month we will be featuring a handful of stories that will show you the amazing and incredible work that the LGBT community center movement is doing across the country. From fighting for equality, serving diverse needs, creating a safe space, building community and empowering a united LGBT community, LGBT centers are the backbone of the LGBT movement. This is the place where you can see it happening every day.
Milwaukee Center's Gay Pride Display Gets Removed by US Postal Services
When the United States Postal Service removed a Pride Month display put up by Executive Director Maggi Cage, Dr. Cage responded "I think it's plain and simple homophobia. I really do think it's a case of discrimination." Click here to learn more about this story.
First Openly Gay Legislative Candidate at Compass Center Ball
Elaine Noble gained notoriety 35 years ago when she became the first openly gay or lesbian candidate elected to a state legislature. Her car was destroyed and the windows of her campaign headquarters smashed before she was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1974. Noble served two terms in Massachusetts, from 1975 through 1978 and became a historic figure in the gay and lesbian community.
In June, Noble spoke in South Florida during the Stonewall Ball, an annual event celebrating the 1969 gay uprising against police harassment at the Stonewall Inn in New York, an event organized by the Compass Center. Read more about it here.
Affirmations Center (Detroit) Youth Client Wins National "Youth Courage Award"
Recipients of the
2009 Colin Higgins Youth Courage Awards, presented by Colin Higgins Foundation,
include the youngest HIV Counselor and Tester in Los Angeles county, an
organizer who is spearheading the first youth-run nonprofit to serve
transgender youth in the Detroit area, and a peer educator working to empower
and educate LGBTQ youth of color to reduce HIV/AIDS in the Washington, DC area.
Francisco "Frank" Armenta, Lance Hicks, and Terra Tempest Moore are
three remarkable young people who have risen above the pain and discrimination
they have experienced and bravely created the communities and safe spaces they
needed for themselves and their peers to survive. Read more about Lance Hicks, from Detroit, and other winners here.
DC Center Faces 60% Funding Cut, Mobilizes
In response to the city's proposed 60% funding cut to the DC LGBT Center in the 2010 budget as a result of city-wide cuts, several individuals and organizations have testified before city council and/or submitted letters to the council. View testimonies and more information about their mobilization campaign here.