Allentown, with its history of welcoming gay residents, will have an LGBT community center to serve that population.

The Pennsylvania Diversity Network announced Tuesday plans to redevelop an Allentown property into a community center that will provide cultural and support services specifically for the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

The center, which will be the sixth of its kind in the state, will serve a population that has been growing in the Lehigh Valley's cities.

In 2010, Allentown had 405 same-sex households, a 55 percent increase since 2000, making it the state's third-largest home to gay couples, behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Bethlehem saw a jump of 79 percent, to 261 same-sex households. Easton had a smaller but still significant increase of 26 percent, to 86 same-sex households.

Allentown is the largest LGBT community in the state that doesn't have a central, physical community center, said activist Adrian Shanker, who's leading the campaign.

"The idea is to create a strong community, which has been historically under-represented in many ways, and to bring us together," he said.

In Allentown, much of the gay community centers in Old Allentown, a historic district roughly bounded by Seventh and 12th streets and north of Hamilton Street.

Officials have not yet revealed the center's precise location or whether it will be in the city's Neighborhood Improvement Zone. But organizers are eager to be a part of Allentown's $1 billion renaissance, buttressed by the special tax zone containing the city's new PPL Center hockey arena, Shanker said.

Pennsylvania Diversity Network has been working with Mayor Ed Pawlowski, the city's Redevelopment Authority and other officials to finalize the location.

"I am proud to support the idea that Allentown will be the home of the first LGBT community center in the Lehigh Valley," Pawlowski said in a written statement. "The city has a growing LGBT population that is investing in our city. Allentown is a very progressive and diverse city, and I am proud to celebrate that diversity. Helping the LGBT community locate and obtain a community center in Allentown shows that we as a city are welcoming and supportive of the LGBT population."

Allentown Councilman Peter Schweyer, who helped facilitate discussions on a location, said the new center will be a win-win for Allentown.

The network plans to rehabilitate a blighted property, Schweyer said.

"Any time we have an opportunity to take a blighted property and merge it with a successful nonprofit to turn it into a community project that will benefit the community at large, I think it's a benefit for everybody," he said.

Schweyer said the new community center will be an example of the kind of partnerships the city can forge with nonprofit organizations to better offer services to the community.

While various area agencies serve segments of the local LGBT population, the center will pull them together, said Barb Baus, a community center advisory board member. The facility will combine programs that promote cultural programming, such as LGBT author readings and lectures, with direct services for the population.

Baus said she wants to provide what she called a "safe space." It also holds potential for the rest of the community, she said, to see the LGBT community as a presence and a positive influence.

"Hopefully, people will start to get it," she said. "We have equality, now let's put it into practice."

Shanker couldn't say when the center might open, noting it will take some time to rehabilitate the vacant building the group has selected, but a fundraising campaign will be launched in hopes of collecting an initial $75,000 to demonstrate community interest, he said. The group is also seeking support from foundations and corporate sponsors.

The community center announcement comes on the heels of a court ruling that struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Despite that win, people can still be fired or denied housing or services for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in most parts of the state, said Liz Bradbury, Pennsylvania Diversity Network's executive director.

In 2002, Allentown became the first city in Pennsylvania to add gay people to its anti-discrimination law, a precedent followed by more than a dozen cities and towns statewide.

The center will be named the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center after Pennsylvania Diversity Network founders Bradbury and Patricia Sullivan. Bradbury and Sullivan were married in 2009 in Connecticut and make their home in Allentown.

"Their names are really transferable," Shanker said. "When people think of the LGBT community, they think of the two of them."

samantha.marcus@mcall.com

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