PROVINCETOWN — The Provincetown Business Guild (PBG) now has a retail storefront on Commercial Street to promote celebrations related to the LGBTQ community.

The Ptown LGBTQ Welcome & Resource Center will be open in May during Pride Weekend at 368 Commercial St. with a series of programs titled “Zero to Equal,” honoring the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which have been called the catalyst for the gay rights movement.

The PBG actually opened its first center, then called “The Shack,” last year on Bradford Street. It served as a trial spot, but having a location in the town center will allow for more visibility and better access, said Mike Kelley, founding chair of the Center and a board member of the PBG. He said the center’s primary functions will be threefold: information and resources, tickets for themed events and branded items for sale.

“Provincetown has been a leader and beacon for the LGBTQ community,” said Kelley. “And celebrating the Stonewall riots is a great theme for Pride 2019 and for Provincetown.”

The riots began in the early hours of June 28, 1969 outside the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The inn was a safe haven for LGBTQ people, where they were able to express themselves openly and socialize without worry, said Kelley.

But “N.Y. state liquor authorities often penalized and shut down establishments that served alcohol to known and suspected LGBT individuals, arguing that the mere gathering of homosexuals was disorderly,” according to History.com. On that day, police raided the Stonewall Inn, roughly removing people and parading them onto the street. The patrons of the bar and neighbors fought back.

“Those riots really opened the door for homosexuality and the beginning of decriminalization,” said Kelley. “It was really viewed as the start of the gay rights era. … Today we enjoy the freedoms to openly live, work, marry, raise a family and love who we want. We can thank these pioneering souls for taking us from zero to equal.”

Programming for the center is still in the works, but Kelley said events include the “Stonewall Stroll,” in partnership with the Stonewall Museum and Archives of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It will offer 17 poster-size panels that tell the story of the riots. The stroll is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. Friday, May 31 and go until the end of day on Sunday, June 2.

The stroll will begin at the center’s storefront and participants will be encouraged to use handheld and mobile maps to navigate around town to see the related displays, he said.

Other plans for pride weekend include the “Stonewall Inn Witnesses to History,” where the center will host interviews with people who were either arrested or who witnessed the riots in New York. Interviews will be held prior to “Sashay to Tea.” The center’s Facebook page will post an updated schedule as events get closer with the event locations and times.

“Like the drag queens who were arrested at Stonewall, we will continue our tradition of sashaying to tea right after the [program] led by our own town’s fabulous drag queens,” said Kelley. “We will show our pride on the way to the daily time-honored tradition of Tea at the Boatslip.”

The center will also host an “LGBTQ 101” series with speakers, and an “Editor Series” with local homeowners like Jeremy Hobson, co-host of NPR’s “Here and Now,” and Ken Kneeland, senior producer at ABC News and “Good Morning America.” There will also be a “Candidate Spotlight Series,” featuring politicians from second homeowner markets such as Florida State Sen. Gary Farmer. The 22-mile-high pride rainbow by artist Yvette Manning will also shine across the sky during the three nights of Pride weekend, May 31 through June 2.

Another big change for the PBG was the recent resignation of executive director Robin Lapidus, who stepped down to “pursue opportunities closer to her family,” she said by phone on Saturday.

“The timing was just right for me and the PBG to make a more smooth transition before things ramp up for the coming season,” said Lapidus. “I am sad to leave, but I feel very positive about the accomplishments the PBG board and I made over the past two-plus years that I have been here.”

Kelley said the PBG board has begun the search for a permanent replacement for Lapidus, and has appointed Bob Sanborn to assume interim responsibility for projects. Sanborn is a former member of the PBG board, a long-time inn and business owner and has served on the town’s visitor service board for a number of years.