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. Community Center could be just such a place of our own. We have come a long way since the Stonewall Rebellion, which took place 30 years ago this month. I rejoice that we now have numerous GLBT-identified newspapers, bookstores, magazines, resorts, and youth and cultural organizations such as Outright VT and the Samadhi Singers in our area, helping us navigate the internal and external waters of homophobia. I will be even more glad when we have a community center that serves as entry point, home to a variety of programs and activities, and spring-board to life in the wider community without shame and fear.