Having cleaned house both operationally and physically after more than a year of leadership turnover, introspection and criticism, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore has invited the public to a "grand re-opening."
The center, known as the GLCCB, will host community members and guests over wine and cheese at its offices in the city-owned Waxter Center from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on April 14.
"We've spent the last two years pulling the center out of a nose dive, and now you're starting to see the effects," said Chris Adkins, president of the center's board of directors.
Adkins, executive director Joel Tinsley-Hall and other members of the center's new leadership team are touting the event as an opportunity for the GLCCB to update community members about new programming, new grant funding and a new optimism that the tide has turned.
The center has recently received two private grants totaling more than $45,000 to provide community education about PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis aimed at preventing HIV infection, and a six-week course in American Sign Language using computer technology.
The center has also launched new youth programs that have been popular, and hopes its early efforts in PrEP education will allow it to attract more federal grant funding expected to be announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Adkins said.
It's also promoting this summer's Baltimore Pride as the event's 40th anniversary, saying it will be the biggest Pride ever held in the city.
"We are in the midst of a revolution at the GLCCB, and the community is really starting to get excited," said Paul Liller, the Pride Committee Chair who was also recently hired as the GLCCB's development coordinator. "The point of the open house is to welcome the community to their new home, and hopefully propel interest in our new programming."
How the community will respond remains unclear.
The event follows a period of extended criticism about the GLCCB's move to the Waxter Center, its constant leadership turnover, and its perceived failure to host a cohesive Pride celebration in 2014 or reimagine its role in a changing nationwide climate for its LGBT constituents.
Criticisms also have been lodged that the GLCCB in recent years has failed to be an inclusive organization, leaving transgender and African American and minority community members feeling unwelcome.
Community members and GLCCB leaders alike saw the center's move to the Waxter Center, first announced in January 2014, as part of the problem.
The GLCCB moved to the Waxter Center, at 1000 Cathedral Street, after selling its longtime headquarters at 241 W. Chase Street in May 2013 for $235,000. Center leaders at the time said the property needed $900,000 in upgrades they couldn't afford.
However, the move was heavily criticized by community members, including those who had helped the center purchase the Chase Street property decades before -- when a bricks-and-mortar safe space not reliant on the city or any other government entity was as important as the programming offered there.
Beyond the loss of the GLCCB's independent space, the same critics said they saw the Waxter Center as a poorly-chosen new home, with its rundown appearance and its previous use by the city for storage. The perception wasn't helped by the fact that the GLCCB was prevented from making changes to the space during the first months it was located there, Adkins said.
"The ability to go in and really open up for business was kind of denied to us," he said.
The "re-opening" is as much to reintroduce community members to the GLCCB's physical home as anything else, leaders said -- and volunteers have helped in the effort.
"A few weeks ago, a group of our volunteers and staff came together on a Saturday morning to work on spiffing up the Center in preparation," said Tinsley-Hall in a letter to the community in the center's Gay Life publication. "I was amazed to see so many people who cared enough to give of their precious time -- especially weekend time -- to help out."
Tinsley-Hall said he believes there is a "renaissance occurring" at the center and "throughout our community," and said the "grand re-opening" is an opportunity for people to come take a look.
Elsewhere in LGBT-related news:
- The New York Times had a story about a brave transgender Bangladeshi women who is being praised for her role in apprehending the attackers of a blogger who wrote critically about Islam.
- Several outlets have been reporting on a new study that found 7 percent of millennials identify as LGBT. Here's the study itself.
- Chelsea Manning is now apparently tweeting from behind bars.