Kaila White

The Republic | azcentral.com

Phoenix Pride announced Monday that it is closing its Phoenix Pride LGBT Center immediately because of a lack of funding and an inability to attract daily visitors beyond its meetings and events.

The center, in downtown Phoenix, was open more than 50 hours a week. It offered free HIV testing, a technology center, an LGBT-focused library, and fitness and educational classes, and has served as a regular meeting place for groups and events.

Many of these services will be moved online, including boards for people to post LGBT-friendly jobs and roommate requests, job fairs, health fairs and diversity and inclusion training, according to a Phoenix Pride news release.

"People are hurt, outraged; it’s completely understandable. We did not anticipate this," Phoenix Pride's executive director Justin Owen said. "It’s a heavy weight on myself that we had to make this decision, but the decision was made by our board of directors so that we could continue the much-needed funding into the community."

Losing almost $12,000 a month

Phoenix Pride is a non-profit organized to educate and promote issues that affect the LGBT community in metro Phoenix. The organization hosts the annual Phoenix Pride Festival and Parade.

It has run the Phoenix Pride LGBT Center since March 2014, when it took over the One Voice Community Center, which also had announced it would be closing because of a lack of funding, and moved it to a larger space in downtown Phoenix.

It costs about $12,000 a month to keep the center open, Owen told The Arizona Republic on Tuesday.

Other cities' LGBT centers are mostly supported by government and foundation grants for services such as behavioral health or HIV prevention, but Phoenix Pride can't offer such services because so many other Phoenix organizations already are, Owen said.

So the main source of money to cover that cost is revenue from events.

“Phoenix Pride’s festivals and events have continued to grow each year through community support and engagement, but that growth alone has not been large enough to maintain and grow the center in the way that we had hoped when we took over,” Owen said in the statement.

The events have raised more than $90,000 a year for grants and scholarships. The overhead for the center has eaten away at the amount of money Phoenix Pride gives to LGBT-friendly organizations such as Joshua Tree Feeding Program, Community Church of Hope, Arizona Gay Rodeo Association and Lambda Phoenix Center.

"A lot of the people don’t realize that the agencies that receive our annual funding greatly depend on that to serve at-risk and at-need populations they serve," Owen said. "So it’s a horrible thing if we aren’t able to keep the center open … but our festivals and events and the funding they give to these other non-profits through grants and scholarship programs is paramount."

An average of six visitors a day

About 750 people gathered for a candlelight vigil outside the Phoenix Pride LGBT Center in June to commemorate the 49 people killed and 53 wounded in an attack at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

Meetings and classes regularly attracted 40 to 50 people, but on a day-to-day basis the center usually saw four to eight visitors, Owen said.

"The community said, 'We would like opportunities for social activities that aren’t in a bar setting,’ so we formulated enrichment groups and social groups like yoga and tango and movie nights and such, and they just haven’t taken off to the level based on the requests we received."

Staff will help people find new locations for their meetings and events and will maintain equipment at the center in hopes of opening a new one in the future.

The center's closing will not affect Phoenix Pride’s festivals and events, according to the statement.

"Phoenix Pride would like to thank all of the volunteers, partner agencies, clients and supporters that have helped keep the center open for the past two years," the statement said. "We look forward to working with the community to determine if a physical community center is possible in the years to come."

Volunteer: One less safe space

Marisa Tristan, 37, was involved with the center for three years when it was run by One Voice, volunteering 40 to 50 hours a week as a board member, she said.

"While I was there, I saw people start to live authentic lives and blossom into wonderful, productive, happy people," she said. "I think that is what kept me coming back each day was the personal growth I saw in volunteers and community members who used the center's resources."

The biggest loss is that there is one less safe location for the LGBT community to congregate, she said.

"What I don't understand is why the board didn't reach out for help before making the decision."

Other LGBT resources in Phoenix

One-n-ten, a Phoenix non-profit serving gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youths. Find it at onenten.org.

a Phoenix non-profit serving gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youths. Find it at onenten.org. Trans* Spectrum of Arizona, a support group for transgender and gender non-conforming people and their allies. Find it at Transspectrum.org.

a support group for transgender and gender non-conforming people and their allies. Find it at Transspectrum.org. PFLAG, which supports people who are LGBTQ and their families, friends and allies both locally and nationally. Find it at pflagarizona.org and pflagphoenix.org.

which supports people who are LGBTQ and their families, friends and allies both locally and nationally. Find it at pflagarizona.org and pflagphoenix.org. Rebel & Divine, a church in downtown Phoenix focused on LGBT and at-risk teens and young adults. Find it at rebeldivineucc.org.

World AIDS Day: Find events, free HIV testing in metro Phoenix