Last Friday, a cross-section of Philadelphia’s LGBTQ community gathered in the SEI Innovation Center in the basement of the Kimmel Center to have an intimate discussion about the problems they face as LGBTQ students, professionals and members of the community. They also talked about the possible to solutions to these problems and the collaborations that already exist to do so.

The event was organized by the the Kimmel Center in partnership with It Gets Better Project, an initiative launched by columnist Dan Savage to support LGBTQ youth, and is part of week-long series of events that aim to help LGBTQ youth. This event, which has comes to other cities, is usually called a World Cafe, but organizers changed the name for Philadelphia given there is a popular local radio show called World Cafe Live.

There were five tables with around 5-6 people each. Representatives from a number of LGBTQ-focused organizations were present, including the Mazzoni Center, Valley Youth House, PFLAG Philadelphia, the Youth Health Empowerment Project (YHEP), and others.

“It seems to be a like a very large focus group, where they are trying to gain a lot of different ideas from a lot of different people,” said Riley Platt, an intern for YHEP.

The three main questions presented to the groups were:

1. What are the issues facing the LGBTQ community?

2. What are some ideas for solving these issues?

3. What collaborations or partnerships have formed to aid in these solutions?

Their answers spanned legal, social, political and personal hurdles for the LGBTQ community: family acceptance, physical/emotional abuse, access to services, homelessness, a lack of role models, and a lack of representation in media and politics.

One issue that came up multiple times was the centralization of LGBTQ services in Center City and their absence in other parts of the city, such as North Philadelphia.

For information, read Generocity’s recent coverage of LGBTQ issues:

Q&A: Pennsylvania ACLU Executive Director Reggie Shuford on the Future of LGBTQ Advocacy

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An Update on ActionAIDS, Pennsylvania’s Largest AIDS-Related Service Provider

Mazzoni Center Releases How to Build a FIERCE GSA Handbook

Photo from Generocity.org

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