Attending this dinner also got me thinking about our natural hunger for community and just how important communing with other GLBT people in safe and supportive settings is to our health and well being. Due to the permeating presence of homophobia in our world, GLBT people have few systems or structures that help us recognize our sexual orientation without fear and frustration, and then embrace and internalize who we are in healthy, loving ways. We also have few systems and structures in place to help straight people become allies so they can come out of their closets of fear, ignorance, and silence to stand with us when and where it counts. Many GLBT people come out and work to embrace and internalize their sexual orientation through trial and error. Experience has shown me that many come out and live quiet lives of desperation and isolation until they commune with a wide array of healthy, self-loving GLBT people in safe and supportive ways.
Athletes have teams to play on.
Singers and musicians have chorales and bands they can join. Recovering folks have AA and NA to attend. Hikers and bikers have clubs to tour with. Scholars have universities and colleges to study in. Since Pride Day occurs only once a year, and bars meet only a sliver of our need for community, having a GLBT-identified community center as an entry point into the tribe seems like a really good idea, one I wholeheartedly support.