Community Corner

GLBT Center Finds Temporary Home in Sag Harbor

"Springboard" location will open in July at Old Whalers Church.

Just six months after beginning a fundraising campaign for a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community center on the East End, a Long Island organization will open in temporary digs this summer.

The center will offer programs to East End youth out of a space at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor Village, David Kilmnick, the CEO of Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth, confirmed on Thursday. LIGALY runs two community centers, the closest being 60 miles away in Bay Shore.

"It's really a springboard for us to start providing direct services on the East End as we continue to raise the money to build or open a state-of-the art space," Kilmnick said. 

The plan is to open the doors in the beginning of July.

The Rev. Mark Phillips approached Kilmnick about opening the center at the church just a few weeks ago. "The Old Whalers Church has provided space, and continues to provide space, for a lot of different community groups," including the Sag Harbor Food Pantry, six different AA groups, and, up until this past month, the Sag Harbor Youth Center, Phillips said. 

"Our governing body here approved unanimously them coming on," Phillips said. "We here at the church see this as part of our mission, as well — a branch of our ministry to provide space for a much needed program."

LIGALY signed a two-year lease with the Presbyterian church. 

The nonprofit organization is seeking funding help from the Town of East Hampton and the Town of Southampton, as well as Suffolk County, to pay for one full-time and one part-time position at the Sag Harbor location so that services can be offered five days per week. The cost would be about $100,000 annually, Kilmnick said. 

If the group is not able to come up with the funding, current staff will have to juggle responsibilities at the Bay Shore and Garden City centers.

"The county itself and the towns should really be investing in it, as well, because these are services that East End residents haven't had before," Kilmnick said. "By being able to keep this place open on a full-time basis, people like David Hernandez would have a space to go to instead of taking their own lives," he said, referring to the East Hampton High School student who died in September

Hernandez's death prompted a wider discussion about the needs of teenagers struggling with their sexuality. LIGALY hosted a forum at the high school in October, at which Kilmnick announced plans for a community center. 

Sag Harbor residents Beatrice Alda — the daughter of actor Alan Alda — and her partner Jennifer Brooke promised a $20,000 matching grant for the community center. Kilmnick reported $60,000 of the $1 million goal has been raised so far.

The community center would provide LGBT youths with a safe environment that offers resources and support, such as youth leadership programs, mental health services, and HIV testing. SAGE Long Island could also provide some senior socializing and health prevention programs, Kilmnick said. 

"I am so excited not to have to travel anymore," Joel Johnson, a transgender student at East Hampton High School, said after learning the news. He made the 60-mile trek with friends every Friday night last year to the community center in Bay Shore, and credited the organization with finiding the courage to tell his family. Johnson sits on the committee to help establish the local center. 

Having a center on the East End, "gives kids a place to know their community is a safe one. It lets you know that you are in a place of acceptance," he said. 

As president of the school's Gay Straight Alliance, he said there was a celebration during the last meeting of the school year on Thursday. He said members thought they'd have to wait years for the center. Now, "We only have to wait two more months. That's amazing," he said. 

The Rev. Katrina Foster, the pastor at St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Amagansett and the Incarnation Lutheran Church in Bridgehampton, is a strong supporter of having such a center available to teens. 

"I think our faith communities should be supporting the civil rights of all people and working to heal the wounds we have inflicted and this is a great marriage between a faith community and the large LGBT community on the East End," she said. 


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