Cincinnati Gay and Lesbian Center to close its doors

by Anthony Glassman

Cincinnati--As of November 9, there will no longer be a physical Gay and Lesbian Center of Cincinnati. Instead, it will become an online clearinghouse of information for the LGBT community and the southeastern Ohio equivalent of the Gay Community Endowment Fund of Akron: a grant-giving organization to benefit other groups in the region.

An email sent out to supporters on October 28 noted that the first grant for 2014 will be to Cincinnati Pride to double the number of street banners promoting the May 31 Pride festival and parade and the June Pride Month. Guidelines for grant applications will be posted on the center?s website at the beginning of the year.

The announcement came a month and a half after the center broke its attendance record for its primary fundraiser, the annual Pride Night at Kings Island.

The letter from the board of directors noted that the center will continue to maintain its website, responding to email and voicemails, and continuing on with Pride Night at Kings Island.

It also said that they will be announcing a public location for the annual meeting and ?develop the best way to enlist volunteers to continue to support our functions and develop new leadership.?

It is not the first time that an Ohio city has lost an LGBT center?s physical space. Toledo now has the Pride Center 419, but it was without a physical center for years. The Akron Pride Center closed in 2006 with the hope of opening a new facility in 2007. However, additional funding to finish renovations on a building in Firestone Park never materialized, and the Akron Pride Center was absorbed into the Community AIDS Network in 2010, leaving the city without an LGBT center for four years.