---

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in NYC is the benefactor of Braking The Cycle. This three day bike ride is dedicated to ensuring HIV/AIDS services continue. Here is some information on The Center and why it's importance is still felt 25 years into the AIDS epidemic.

• Each year The Center provides 5,000 counseling sessions for people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.
• All counseling sessions for people living with HIV/AIDS are free. Your donations will continue to ensure these services remain free and readily available.
• More than 1,000 teens come to The Center annually for leadership training in HIV prevention which they then take back to their schools/communities to help educate and stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.
• Since its inception, more than 3,000 people have attended the annual World AIDS Day vigils in NYC. Thousands more have attended The Center's educational forums, conferences, and other HIV/AIDS events.
• Each week hundreds attend the 25 HIV/AIDS support and advocacy groups held at The Center.
• After 9/11, the City of NY came to The Center to learn how to handle mass bereavement and based their program on The Center's.

The Center is committed to ensuring that people living with and affected by AIDS receive the care and services they need.

Without rides like Braking The Cycle and support from people like you, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center could not continue to offer the educational, support, and personal services they do.

Established in 1983, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center has grown to become the largest LGBT multi-service organization on the East Coast and second largest LGBT community center in the world.

Every week, 6,000 people visit the Center, and more than 300 groups meet here. In addition, our myriad meeting rooms are booked months in advance, indicating the community is as hungry as ever for a place to call its own.

We provide groundbreaking social service, public policy, educational and cultural/recreational programs. We also serve as an incubator for grassroots groups that meet here. Indeed, we were the birthplace of organizations such as the AIDS activist group ACT UP and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the principal organization combating homophobia and stereotyping of gays in the media.

Among our groundbreaking programs:

Promote the Vote, the Center's voter registration and mobilization program, is a nonpartisan outreach project that offers the LGBT community an opportunity to impact the electoral process. It also seeks to create a visible voting constituency. Founded in 1992, the program is one of the largest LGBT voter registration programs in the United States.

Center Kids, a model for LGBT family organizing, promotes the legitimacy and visibility of LGBT families. More than 2,500 families in the tristate area partake in the program.

Youth Enrichment Services (YES) focuses on ending isolation experienced by many LGBT youths. YES offers professional development training for youth workers, child welfare workers, teachers, guidance counselors and school administrators. YES also has a leadership training and networking project for students working to end homophobia in their schools.

Gender Identity Project, more than a decade old, offers transgender people an opportunity to discover and acknowledge who they are while building community.

National Archive of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender History at the Center preserves the LGBT community's heritage and history, making it accessible through regular exhibits, publications and scholarly research activities. The archive is a national leader due to the size and scope of its collection.

In addition, one of our prime functions is to provide affordable meeting space for LGBT organizations, many of which would otherwise have no place to go. The lack of affordable, harassment-free space in New York has pushed several organizations to the brink of extinction. Stepping forward more than once, we have ensured the delivery of much needed services and programs.

 

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street New York, NY
www.gaycenter.org