february 5. 1999 » j M
t W *j2
Is a Por tl and,gay and lesbian community center a tar-fetched fantasy or a reality on the verge?
by
t
H olly P ruett • photos by K.H. K imball
he queer community in Oregon has
vanquished Lon Mabon time and
again, won the most sweeping gay
and lesbian rights court decision in
the country, and at one time boast
ed a half-dozen openly queer state legislators.
So why doesn’t our metropolitan area have
what more than 100 other cities and towns
across the nation now enjoy— a gay and les
bian community center?
Ron Rasmussen, a Vancouver, Wash.-based
marketing consultant, has an unconventional
answer.
“Dare 1 say it?”
G o ahead, Ron.
“I think it’s SA D — Seasonal Affective Dis
order. People just don’t have the energy to put
into it.”
Despite the percentage of time we spend
mildewing inside a rain cloud, the idea of a gay
and lesbian community center pops up as regu
larly as mushrooms on a cow patty.
In the wake of 1992’s N o on 9 campaign, a
number of activists interested in organizing a
center worked on the idea for months, deter
mined to refocus the energy generated by the
bitter political battle into a positive force to
build the queer community.
A few years later, three board members from
Pride Northwest, the group that orchestrates
the Portland pride parade, traveled to the Los
Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Center
on a fact-finding mission, but they were unable
to persuade the rest of the board to move the
concept forward.
Just recently, Portland Gay Men’s Chorus
board members began singing this now-familiar
tune. When they created their 10-year vision
for the chorus at their latest planning retreat, a
gay and lesbian community center was a part of
it.
In
the wake o f 1992's No on 9 campaign,
Chorus board member Joe Jefferson, a fund
raising consultant with the Collins Group, has
a number o f activists interested in organizing
begun to talk with leaders of various sexual
a center worked on the idea for months,
minority organizations about exploring the
need for a center.
determined to refocus the energy generated
“We see ourselves as just a convenor for the
conversation that gets people together,”
by the bitter political battle into a positive
explains Jefferson. “The Portland Gay Men’s
force to build the queer community.
Chorus has no vested interest in the outcome."
The outcome, based on Just Out’s conversa
tions with many of these same community
leaders, is far from certain.
al skills of community members, as well as bet
Steen and Vazquez visited Oregon last
“When you talk about a queer community
ter “connection and communication” fostered
autumn as part of their ongoing work on behalf
center, who is included?” This question, articu
by the national network.
of the National Association of Lesbian and
lated by Cecil Prescod of Brother to Brother, is
“The New York, Minneapolis and Los
Gay
Community
Centers.
at the top of a long list of issues raised around
Angeles
centers serve as models,” Vazquez says.
The association formed in 1994 when rep
town about ownership, leadership, funding and
“People see what’s possible and then project
resentatives from centers around the country
control.
their own communities into that.”
convened in New York for the 25th anniver
The answer, from the perspective of one
The New York Lesbian and Gay Communi
sary
of
the
Stonewall
rebellion.
At
the
time,
national community center advocate, is simple.
ty Service Center is one of five centers whose
there were 37 centers on the mailing list.
“A community center is a place where any
budgets
exceed $1 million. (The other four are
Today
there
are
more
than
100.
one in the community can go and see them
in
Chicago,
Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa
Vazquez attributes the “explosion of local
selves reflected,” asserts Carmen Vazquez,
Barbara, Calif.)
communities creating their own centers" to
director of public policy for the New York Les
Founded in 1983 and located in a 150-year-
several factors. First, the success of right-wing
bian and Gay Community Services Center.
old high school in Greenwich Village, the New
attacks on the queer community throughout
That means more than the pictures on the
York facility hosts more than 300 community
the 1990s created an urgent awareness that
wall, according to the center’s public policy
groups that, along with center services and pro
“home
is
where
it’s
at,”
as
Vazquez
frames
the
associate, Carlie Steen. “ If you want a commu
grams, attract more than 5,000 visitors each
increasing focus of the queer rights movement
nity center that represents the whole commu
week. Its monthly calendar of events is mailed
on
local
organizing.
nity, you need the whole community involved
to 50,000 homes.
At the same time, she notes the movement
in organizing and running it,” says Steen, an
Counseling and social services at the center
is
getting
more
sophisticated
via
the
profession
attorney.
include the Gender Identity Project, substance
abuse and bereavement services, youth enrich
ment, and mediation. Its public policy depart
ment coordinates an international queer rights
program and a family project called Center
Kids, along with a massive ongoing voter regis
tration and mobilization campaign and
statewide legislative advocacy.
An array of tastes are satisfied with recre
ational offerings and cultural programs ranging
from bingo to a sexuality series, along with
New York’s largest gay and lesbian lending
library and the National Museum and Archive
of Lesbian and Gay History.
Perhaps the center’s most significant role,
though, is in “allowing the community to orga
nize itself,” as Vazquez puts it.
The simple act of providing affordable and
accessible meeting space has helped to midwife
organizing efforts that swept the nation. A C T
UP, Queer Nation, the Lesbian Avengers and
the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation were all bom at the center.
It’s that organizing potential that some feel
is the most compelling reason to consider a
community center in Portland.
The Lesbian Community Project’s Deke
Law, a veteran of community organizing efforts
around the country, says, “Housing and/or
coordination of the activities of existing orga
nizations is only one small piece of what a true
community center can offer.”
Law envisions a center as a force for build
ing not just community, but the movement.
“Providing an entry point for folks, a
reclaiming of identity as life-saving, is vital to
developing a community that has the strength
and will to keep up the long fight for social
change," says Law. “A community center can
provide the kind of leadership development,
cross-training and skill building that will sup
port organizational development and create
new energy for doing this work.”
Can this be achieved just by moving exist
ing organizations under one big roof?
No, according to Vazquez, who believes “a
unifying mission and a group of people to carry
it out” is essential to a true community center.
“Co-located organizations without a central
mission are not a community center. They’re
just a piece of real estate,” says Vazquez.
Based on her work with centers ranging
from Panhandle Gay and Lesbian Support Ser
vices in Scottsbluff, Neb., to The Edge in Fre
mont, Calif., Steen concludes: “All centers can
work off the same model and play the same
role in their community, regardless of their
size.
From that foundation, the focus of the cen
ter varies from town to town. Some are the
main sexual minority social service providers in
their communities; others tip more toward pub
lic policy or cultural programming.
What about a city like Portland, where
there is already a relatively developed network
of services and groups serving the queer com
munity?
In that type of turf-oriented territory,
Vazquez cautions, it is especially important that
someone advocate for the community as a
whole.
Continued on Page 22