LGBT Community Center: New York City, 1983-present

"its survival was by no means guaranteed"

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The history of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, at 208 West 13th Street, in New York City, was described in the New York Times by David W. Dunlap, in July 2008:

"The success of this now-influential organization was far from a sure thing in 1983, attended by near misses and haphazard circumstances. And its survival was by no means guaranteed." Dunlap interviewed Richard D. Burns, the executive director of the center, and Robert A. Woodworth, director of its capital projects and who has been associated with the center since its beginning.

Dunlap quoted Woodworth about the center: “People were ready for it.” AIDS had been identified by name only a year earlier, and was ravaging the gay population.

“That whole rush to address the AIDS epidemic was critical to institution-building in the gay community,” Woodworth told Dunlap. “There was a realization that if we do it together, we can get it done. And if we don’t do it together, we’re going to die.”

In 1980, New York City announced it would lease the 13th Street building, then vacant, after being used as a school. The tenant was a nonprofit organization, Caring Community, which also sublet space to other groups. Among these were SAGE, Senior Action in a Gay Environment (now Services and Advocacy for G.L.B.T. Elders), and the Metropolitan Community Church.

As Dunlap told it: "When Caring Community defaulted on its lease in 1983, leaders of gay organizations and AIDS advocacy groups saw an opportunity to put a roof over their heads." Mayor Edward I. Koch wanted to auction the building, and had to be persuaded of the need for a gay community center. Woodworth, then president of the Greater Gotham Business Council. Irving Cooperberg, chairman of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, and David P. Rothenberg, executive director of the Fortune Society stepped in as center organizers. In June, according to Dunlap, "Mayor Koch said he would consider turning the school into a health center for people with AIDS."

Incorporation

On July 6, 1983, the center came into existence, on paper, when it was incorporated as a nonprofit in the District of Columbia. Dunlap reports: "Thomas M. Lahiff Jr., one of the three incorporators, was working at the time for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which allowed him to handle the center’s business on a pro bono basis:"" :“Skadden had a D.C. office, and it was our view that we could get it up and running faster if we filed in D.C.”

The center’s purpose, according to its filing, was “to grant funds from time to time in the sole and absolute discretion of the corporation to other not-for-profit charitable corporations to be used in furtherance, without limitation, of specific charitable, literary and educational projects which the corporation shall have reviewed and approved, and to conduct any and all other activities as shall from time to time be found appropriate in connection with the foregoing.”

In addition to Cooperberg and Rothenberg, the center's original board members were Virginia M. Apuzzo, Steve Ault, Michael Callen, Christopher Collins, Ken Dawson, Jim Fouratt, Marcy L. Kahn, Paul Rapoport, Peter Vogel and Karen Ziegler.

By December 1983, said Dunlap, "with no money and no certificate of occupancy, this fledgling group had negotiated the sale." Mayor Koch stressed that the transaction was to address public health issues. But Rothenberg, who was then vice president of the center, said it would not be “geared to AIDS patients per se.” Instead, he said, “It will consolidate the community and give us a point of focus which we’ve not had.”

The Center in 2008

Dunlap said that the center "is now 25 years old, woven into the fabric of gay life in New York City and used by 300 groups, some weekly, some monthly, some annually; with 6,000 visitors a week, 80 employees, an $8 million annual budget and a $50 million capital campaign under way. (Full disclosure: I am among its donors.)"