The Greater Dayton LGBT Center is celebrating its 50th year. The nonprofit organizes the annual Pride celebration, but it also focuses on advocacy and outreach.
The center relocated to North St. Clair Street about two years ago and Executive Director Rick Flynn says the new digs are still very much a work in progress.
In an interview with WYSO, he talked about the center's current role in the community, likening it to the small kitchen table in his office where the interview took place.
Rick Flynn: The fact that we're sitting at a kitchen table is kind of indicative of how I feel we are in the community. We're that kitchen table where you can come in and sit down and chat and make connections. And I hope we always are that, I would hate to see us get so big that we lose that personal touch. And it's nice being downtown sort of in the midst of everything going on. This building became available at just the right time that we were looking and so we jumped on it.
Now, with that being said, old buildings bring issues, so we deal with those as they come up and as much as we can. But we're happy with our spot, and I think it's got a lot of possibilities. I always semi-apologize when people come in and just say we're a work in progress, so it's not a finished product. And I think that's important, too, because I think that's all of us. We're all a work-in-progress, and once it's done, then what?
Jerry Kenney: Well, and then, of course, the main point is the mission and the outreach. So tell me a little bit about how those efforts are done.
Flynn: Outreach is interesting because I think it can be anything from tabling at a resource fair to having a conversation with somebody who just calls looking for answers. And the way we do it is just try to be authentic about it. A lot of times I'll get a phone call and I don't know the answers. Like I'm going to Google just as much as they are, but I think just hearing somebody at the other end of the phone who's listening, that makes a big difference. So what you see visually, yes, that's great, but there's a lot of stuff behind the scenes that happens. So I think outreach could probably be better. I would love to do more, but we're limited. We're limited on what we can do with the organization that we have. Someday when we have a staff of 25 or something.
Kenney: That's a challenge really for any organization. You mentioned putting together a survey. Any other challenging things that the center needs to overcome or special events that you've got coming up?
Flynn: Well, there are always going to be challenges. A few weeks ago, the furnace went out, and so that became a big challenge, and getting that taken care of. And there's the roof and all the challenges that come with the building. Politically, I think we see a lot of challenges because we just don't know what's next. There's a lot of speculation, and we can all get sucked up into that. But I think that we got to keep our eye on the ball and just keep moving forward.
As far as events, we've got a few things planned. You're actually going to be the first to hear this. We're doing a birthday party for ourselves on April 19. So it's going to be from noon to three. Just invite people in. We'll have cake or cupcakes or something like that. Tell stories and just kind of hang out. So we're doing that. We've got a film coming up with the neon in collaboration for our 50th. We're going to do Paris is Burning. It seemed like a nice historical piece to kind of go with everything. We're doing an art exhibit with the Dayton Society of Artists. That will be April 4th. We're going to do a reception for that. Got Pride coming up. And that takes up all the brain matter at the moment. What are the dates for Pride this year? They are Friday, June 5 and Saturday, June 6.
Kenney: And people can get more information about your organization and all the events coming up.
Flynn: Yes, go to our website, daytonlgbtcenter.org or follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
