Bronx LGBTQ Center

UNION COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER JOINS FORCES WITH BRONX LGBTQ CENTER TO OFFER SUPPORT AND LEGAL ASSISTANCE

   LGBTQ residents of the Bronx now have available a support group and free legal clinic as a result of a partnership between Union Community Health Center (UCHC) and the Bronx LGBTQ Center.

An LGBTQ Youth Group is meeting every Friday from 4pm-5pm at Union Community Health Center, 260 East 188^th Street, the Bronx. During these group sessions, topics are selected for discussion by the group, including bullying, healthy relationships, domestic violence, education and parent & teen communication. The Youth Group is a safe zone for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth and their straight allies aged 12-20. For more information, contact 718-618-8569.

“Union’s Teen Health Center has been a safe and welcoming place for Bronx youth for several years, and we are very excited to open our doors, share our experience, and extend our services to LGBTQ youth,” said Dr. Uri Belkind, Director of Adolescent Medicine at Union Community Health Center. “Here, LGBTQ youth will find a haven in which they can relate with other youth in an open and healthy environment, as well as take part in all the other activities and services that Union’s Teen Health Center offers.  We look forward to helping all our youth build strong, healthy relationships with their peers.”

Additionally, every first and third Tuesday of the month from 6pm-8pm, Union Community Health Center hosts the Bronx LGBTQ Legal Clinic. During these clinic sessions, volunteer lawyers offer consultations at no cost to the public. The attorneys provide general guidance on individual’s specific issues, make legal referrals and offer helpful legal resources. No appointment is necessary, although those interested are encouraged to arrive between 6pm-6:30pm to register. For more information about the Legal Clinic, email Bronx@le-gal.org or call 212-353-9118.

The LGBTQ Legal Clinic is the result of a partnership between The LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York (LeGaL), The Bronx LGBTQ Center and Union Community Health Center. 

 

 

The Bronx LGBTQ Center Celebrates The Holidays

  The Bronx LGBTQ Center will hold its Family Holigays program in celebration of Christmas and Kwanzaa on Thursday, December 26 from 2-6pm at the First Lutheran Church of Throggs Neck (3075 Baisley Avenue , Bronx, NY). Family Holigays is a program of the center featuring pot-luck gatherings to celebrate the major holidays throughout the year.

 

   Unfortunately, many within the LGBTQ community are still ostracized by their families and friends because of who they are. These pot luck gatherings offer a welcoming celebration of the major holidays throughout the year to provide support to everyone in our communities, especially the marginalized and ostracized. It is hoped that the feelings of loneliness such community members often face will be lessened in what otherwise would be a celebratory and joyous time.

 

   While there is no cost to attend the Family Holigays celebration for Christmas and Kwanza on December 26^th, registration is requested to help coordinate the food for this pot-luck event. Donations are always appreciated and welcomed. For more information about the event, including the unwanted gifts Secret Santa, and to register, visit https://familyholigayskwanzmas.eventbrite.com.

   The Bronx LGBTQ Center is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization building a new community services center for LGBTQ and supportive individuals in the Bronx, lower Westchester, and upper Manhattan. It offers supportive services such as a free legal clinic, youth and women's groups, and social and recreational events. The Center is partnering with other community-based organizations to provide clinical and health-related services to the community. For more information, email info@bronxlgbtqcenter.org, call 347-LGBT-BX1, or visit us online at http://bronxlgbtqcenter.org, on Facebook at http://facebook.com/bronxlgbtqcenter, on Google+ at http://google.com/+BronxlgbtqcenterOrg and on Twitter at @BxLGBTQcenter.

Contact Peter C. Frank at secretary@bronxlgbtqcenter.org or call 914-417-9579 for more information.

 

 

Bronx LGBTQ Center Wants to Talk to Cardinal Spellman High School

  This comes from the New Bronx LGBTQ Center who are expressing their desire to engage in dialogue with Cardinal Spellman High School regarding its intention to have a speaker from an organization that advocates "treating" LGBTQ individuals to "cure" their "gay addiction" using principles of 12-step programs address the school.

  The new Bronx LGBTQ Center is deeply concerned after learning that Cardinal Spellman High School has invited Father Donald Timone to speak at its school about LGBTQ issues.

While we respect freedom of speech, we do not respect bullying and hate speech, especially when it negatively impacts the lives of at-risk teenagers. Fr. Timone's misinformed and unenlightened rhetoric adds to the toxic environment that drives so many LGBTQ youth to despair—and beyond.

"No educational institution should be so irresponsible as to invite someone whose entire approach to LGBTQ individuals is based on bad science. Exodus International, a Christian ministry that formerly advocated attempts to 'pray away the gay' (i.e. conversion therapy), recently disbanded after admitting that a person's sexual orientation cannot be changed and that reparative therapy is in fact harmful," Peter C. Frank, the Center's secretary stated.

Fr. Timone is affiliated with COURAGE, an organization that treats gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people as addicts curable by participation in a 12-step program, instead of accepting and respecting them as the loving individuals they are. Courage's "free speech" promotes self-loathing among LGBTQ individuals and encourages others to hate LGBTQ people simply for being who they are, thus putting them at a greater risk of being bullied.

We strongly condemn the notion that being LGBTQ can be "treated" with 12-step programs or by any other method. Mr. Frank added, "Cardinal Spellman High School should instead, like Pope Francis's recent statements, be sending a message of love, inclusion, and acceptance.”

We join with LGBTQ spiritual leaders in calling for dialogue with Fr. Timone and the Archdiocese of New York, as these types of belief systems lead to violence and homelessness.

Rev. Carmen Hernandez

We at the Bronx LGBTQ Center want all youth to know that you are fine just as you are. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, whether you're straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or questioning. We accept and celebrate you for who you are," Rev. Carmen Hernandez, a board member of the Center, said.

"The Bronx LGBTQ Center is a safe space for all who are struggling with issues of sexual orientation or gender identity. Our Youth Group meets at 4pm every Friday at Union Community Health Center, 260 East 188th Street, 5th Floor, the Bronx," Mr. Frank noted.