CEO Letter: The Center is Home, Safe Harbor—Love
By Lorri L. Jean, CEO
February is ostensibly the Month of Love.
But I think love is a year-round pursuit. So much of our lives revolve around it. Yearning for it. Seeking it. Reveling in it. Reacting to its imperfections.
It can make us feel on top of the world one day and the lowest of the low the next. I feel extraordinarily lucky because my life is infused with love—from my family to my friends to my wife, Gina, with whom I’ll celebrate our 20th anniversary next month.
The icing on the cake is that I work for an organization that is the personification of love.
Sadly, too many of the people we serve have had a very different experience. Lack of love is one of the fundamental factors that lead people to turn the Center in the first place.
Sometimes it’s personal: they don’t have families to whom they can turn for help. Their families might have refused to accept them or even actively rejected them.
Sometimes it’s societal: they have suffered exclusion and discrimination in a world that still treats LGBT people as second class-citizens. Sometimes it’s both.
Many of the people we care for never learned to love themselves. The resulting pain and anger and low self-esteem can lead them to make very difficult or harmful choices, like running away from home or taking their anger out on others. Or seeking solace in drugs or alcohol. Or not caring enough about themselves to engage in safer sex.
Fortunately, the Center is here to help. In fact, every day the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center loves people. We may not call it that or even think of it that way, but it’s an accurate description for much of what we do.
We are a safe harbor for people who need us. We welcome them. We comfort and advise them. For many we offer a sense of belonging.
And for some we are literally the only family and home they have.
We do our best to care for everyone who comes to us and to do it with competence, kindness, warmth and compassion. That sounds a lot like love to me.
Make a Donation - Go to lagaycenter.org/donate and give to support our services for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community
Mentor a Youth - Go to lifeworksla.org to learn about our LifeWorks youth development and mentoring program and the many ways it helps youth thrive. If you are 30 or older, apply to become a mentor!
Join us to Canvass - Our Vote for Equality program organizes door-to-door canvasses in which volunteers go door-to-door to talk to people about LGBT issues such as the FAIR Education Act, which is now under attack. To learn how you can help, email Jackson Darling at jdarling@lagaycenter.org. No experience is necessary; canvasses begin with a full training, and lunch is always provided.
