Pride Center Celebrates Its Own Survival At Pride Month’s Start

by Thomas Breen

Alder Caroline Tanbee Smith: “I deeply believe that cities are not defined by the challenges that we face. We’re defined by what values we refuse to abandon and how we as a community choose to respond.”

State Treasurer Erick Russell: “I think about myself coming up in New Haven and not necessarily seeing myself represented in the community, not seeing a Pride flag up or a community center I know I could go and feel safe and build community and meet other people that were figuring out their own journey.”

Outside 50 Orange St. on Monday.

New Haven Pride Center Board Co-Chair Hope Chávez led a politician-packed press conference Monday morning celebrating the start of Pride Month — as well as the recent fundraising blitz that saved the local LGBTQ+ nonprofit from permanent closure.

This has been “an incredibly difficult year,” Chávez said, while standing alongside Gov. Ned Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, state Treasurer Erick Russell, Mayor Justin Elicker, and Alders Caroline Tanbee Smith, Frank Redente, Christine Kim, and Elias Theodore, among others.

And yet, she said, today is a day to rejoice. “Thank God we didn’t have to close our doors.”

What Chávez was referring to was the local nonprofit’s decision to temporarily close in late February due to financial straits. The center owed over $200,000 in federal taxes, fees, and interest, stemming from several months in 2022 and early 2023 during which its nonprofit status lapsed.

Thanks to the leadership of Chávez and fellow board co-chair Nick Bussett, and with the assistance of Community Foundation for Greater New Haven President/CEO Karen DuBois-Walton — who convened a key meeting of prospective donors earlier this spring — the Pride Center was able to raise $500,000, enough to ensure that it reopens.

Chávez said that the organization is still looking for a new interim executive director, and its 50 Orange St. headquarters has not fully reopened yet.

Though the Pride Center does not currently have anyone on staff, the board has grown to include six members. Chávez said that the Pride Center has made available its 50 Orange St. home for different groups — like the Rainbow Elders — to meet, as the organization works towards a fuller reopening of the space in the weeks ahead.

Monday’s presser, however, was all about celebrating the Pride Center’s successful fundraising drive — an effort referred to time and again as “Project Phoenix” — just in time for the organization’s 30-year anniversary.

“The Pride Center is too important to fail,” Elicker said at Monday’s presser. He pledged that the city will continue to support the organization as it gets back on its feet. “We still have a lot of work to do.”

Smith thanked Chávez and Bussett for “choosing the harder path of rebuilding. You all saved our Pride Center.”

Now, she said, “the Rainbow Elders can continue to gather here.” The food pantry and clothing closet will still be stocked. “And the kid across the street who isn’t ready yet, who hasn’t told their family, whose only written it in the margins of their journal, can look at this building and know that this city loves her for who she is and who she loves.”

“This is a big deal,” added Russell. “Our community is very much under attack,” especially at the national level.

He pointed to the cancellation of the national suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ youth, the banning of transgender people from the military, and ads that use young people as “political pawns,” communicating to them that “you shouldn’t exist.”

“The reality is,” Russell said, “we are not going anywhere.” He said that Connecticut stands on the front lines of anti-discrimination, protecting access to gender-affirming care, and supporting marriage equality.

“We will not bow down to threats or attempts to dehumanize us,” he said, “and Connecticut will always be a safe space for everyone.”

Andrew Rice (right) gathers petition signatures for his Democratic primary challenge campaign.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro: “We need to speak loudly and reject hatred and extremism.”

Mayor Elicker (right): “The Pride Center is too important to fail.”

Beacon Communities CEO Dara Kovel, the Pride Center’s landlord: “This is just an incredible thing to have here.”

Community Foundation President/CEO Karen DuBois-Walton: “We’re choosing to be visible. We’re choosing to be connected. We’re choosing to build something stronger together.”

Gov. Ned Lamont, with Pride Center board co-chairs Chávez and Nick Bussett: “We love you and we’re proud to have you here.”