September 15th Marks LGBT Center Awareness Day

Gay Lesbian Times
September 15th Marks LGBT Center Awareness Day
National day to celebrate GLBT Centers
BY IVAN GARCIA, ASSISTANT EDITOR
Published Thursday, 09-Sep-2010 in issue 1185

Our community LGBT Center is one of the biggest and best resources for everything and anything community based. They host social programs, outdoor events and it is the gathering point for many GLBT related community events. Such as the Day of Decision march during the Prop 8 trial ruling. Our San Diego LGBT Community Center is an invaluable asset to many in San Diego, just as many other centers are valuable to their respective communities throughout the country.

September 15th 2010 marks the 2nd celebration of LGBT Center Awareness Day, a day dedicated to creating awareness of these valuable centers throughout the country as well as highlighting their services offered for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community. This day was also created to promote the central role that GLBT centers play in local communities, as well the growing GLBT political and social movement.

Founded by CenterLink, a member-based coalition to support the development of strong, sustainable GLBT community centers, LGBT Center Awareness Day is dedicated to the promotion of community centers that help to empower the GLBT community.

Founded in 1994, The CenterLink organization has played an important role in supporting the growth of GLBT centers across the country and addressing the challenges they face, by helping these centers to improve their organizational and service delivery capacity and increase access to public resources.

Based in Washington, DC, CenterLink works with other national organizations to advance the rights of GLBT individuals and to provide their respective community centers with information and analysis of key issues.

Launched in 2009, Center Awareness Day saw resounding success and support with celebrity testimonials from the likes of VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club’s Ant and comedians Bruce Vilanch and Margaret Cho. A letter of support from President Barack Obama and varying nationwide events proved to be successful in 2009, LGBT Center Awareness Day returns in 2010 with just as much, if not more support from the nation and the community.

This year’s theme is “Building Our Community From The Center,” a theme that marks the unified effort and hard work of each GLBT center’s respective community and the growth that could arise from them.

San Diego’s own LGBT Center and its San Diego community are sure to gather for this day of awareness and appreciation for The Center and its staff. Since this is a national day of recognition toward centers nationwide, each center will take this day to create awareness of the resources and services each is valued for.