LGBT Center of Hampton Roads Officially Opens Tonight

It has been a long time dream of many in the local LGBT community to have a community center for members of the LGBT community - both to provide meeting space for organizations and to offer programs to address different community issues. Now, through grants from the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Advocates for Youth the dream has become a reality. The new LGBT Center of Hampton Roads is housed in a former warehouse just outside of the Ghent neighborhood in Norfolk which for years has been an LGBT favorite because of the relatively open mindedness of the residents and the areas many shops and restaurants. Like many revitalized urban neighborhoods, the LGBT community played a large role in making Ghent what it is today. Unfortunately, due to a previously scheduled commitment - i.e., the party we are hosting at our house, the boyfriend and I will miss the grand opening gala. The Virginian Pilot looks at the Center's opening. Here are a few highlights:

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For years, Hampton Roads' lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community gathered in homes, bars and, sometimes, no place at all. Various groups had brainstormed plans for an LGBT center, but a lack of organization meant the ideas never came to fruition, said Stacie Walls-Beegle, executive director of Access AIDS Care.
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Now, through the work of Walls-Beegle's organization and the help of two grants, the LGBT Center of Hampton Roads has become a reality. . . . The LGBT center has been providing services since June, but the grand opening will be held tonight.
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The center has two large rooms for meetings and social events and two smaller rooms for counseling services, available for those in the LGBT community and those who are HIV-positive. Depending on income and eligibility, some counseling services might be free, Walls-Beegle said.
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Larry Sauger of Norfolk said the center will be especially important for LGBT youths. Sauger, 44, said this kind of resource did not exist when he was growing up. "For me as a young gay person, there was nothing," Sauger said. "There was no place for me to turn. I like going in there now and seeing all of the younger people who don't want to hang out the bars but can still socialize."
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Walls-Beegle said her group already has received calls from other clubs and organizations wanting to host meetings at the center, and the founding of the facility has helped the community restart a chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
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Those needing more information can go to the Center's website here.

Thousands Honor Tel Aviv Gay Center Shooting Victims

Over the weekend thousands turned out to honor those killed and wounded during the prior week's terror attack at a gay youth center in Tel Aviv - even though threats had been made that terror attacks might be made against those attending the rally for the shooting victims. As with Christian fanatics and Islamic fundamentalist extremists, ultra conservative Jewish groups have turned religion into something evil and motivated solely by fear and hate. I am happy to see that decent people refused to be intimidated by the anti-gay hate merchants. Here are some highlights from Haaretz.com:

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One week after a gunman entered a center for gay and lesbian youth and opened fire, killing two people and wounding 12, tens of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square on Saturday to commemorate the victims and show solidarity. The rally was to be addressed by Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, President Shimon Peres and Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar, as well as family members of the victims and members of Israel's gay community.

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The rally was preceded by a number of threats against the gay community. Earlier Saturday, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces' Nahal Haredi unit was arrested on suspicion that he had threatened rally organizers on an online forum. While in custody, the soldier confessed to making the threats. Meanwhile, operators of transportation to the Tel Aviv rally received telephone threats from an anonymous caller who warned that grenades will be hurled at attendants of the rally.

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A similar threat was received by organizers of transportation from Haifa. According to Gal Zberger, who organized a Peace Now bus to take demonstrators from Haifa to Tel Aviv, "I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. He asked for details regarding the bus. I gave him the details and asked for his name. He said 'the one with the grenade.' I asked what he meant, and he said 'today you will get hit with grenades, not just guns.'"

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I believe that there is a God or higher being - what must he/she/it think of the horrors done in the name of God?