The former head of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore has announced plans to launch a new organization -- also focused on LGBT issues -- in North Baltimore.
Kelly Neel, who resigned as acting executive director of the GLCCB in October, said she doesn't intend for her North Baltimore Equality Center to be a rival to the long-standing GLCCB in Mount Vernon, but a partner to it and many other organizations in the city that serve the LGBT community.
She also wants it to serve portions of the city's LGBT community who don't have access to the GLCCB because of transportation issues or who don't see services there as being suited to their needs, she said.
"I don't want people to think that I'm just trying to take over what the GLCCB is doing. I want to partner with them in any way that I can to support our community," Neel said. "A lot of organizations in the past have kind of been hesitant to work with each other, and I just think it's kind of irresponsible to our community, because if we work together I think we can accomplish things. If we're all connected and we're all fighting for the same thing, that empowers our community to also put aside differences."
Neel's move follows months of voiced frustrations from members of the LGBT community -- including transgender women and people of color -- that the GLCCB has failed to address their needs. It also comes as new GLCCB leaders, including executive director Joel Tinsley-Hall and board president William "Bill" Redmond-Palmer, are just settling in with the goal of reimagining the center's role in the community.
Tinsley-Hall and others at the decades old center have admitted to shortcomings in recent years, including a troubled rollout of last year's Baltimore Pride celebration, the state's largest LGBT event and the biggest and most well-known piece of the GLCCB's fundraising portfolio.
They have also discussed the need to revisit the center's role in an era of broader acceptance of the LGBT community in the city at large, and the need to attract new members and donors to the organization.
Tinsley-Hall said Neel has briefed him and the GLCCB board of directors on her intentions for her new North Baltimore Equality Center, and said he appreciates "anyone who is trying to fill unmet needs" in the community, where the needs continue to be great.
"As long as services are not being duplicated and thus spreading already limited resources too thin, I wish her well and look forward to finding ways to work together," he said.
Neel said she believes her organization will be able to help other groups and organizations, including the GLCCB, make the most of their funding and attract more through joint grant proposals.
She envisions programs serving specific LGBT populations in North Baltimore, but also programs open to everyone in the community who is LGBT or an ally -- from yoga classes to community gardens, bicycle education and maintenance workshops, and studio and gallery spaces.
She eventually wants to have several staff members, and estimated her first-year budget needs will be between $60,000 and $65,000. She expects to raise funding through grassroots solicitations of local businesses, grants and a local crowd-sourcing effort.
For now, however, Neel said she is just looking for people from all across the city to fill out her survey online, which asks what sort of programming respondents would be interested in.
That survey is here.
To see Neel's full plan for the organization, you can click here.
Elsewhere in LGBT-related news:
- ICYMI, the biggest winner at Sunday's 72nd annual Golden Globe Awards may have been the LGBT community.
- The State Department is considering phasing out its domestic partner benefits for unmarried gay employees, reports the Washington Blade.
- The same-sex marriage ban in South Dakota just got struck down. Here's what's next.