May 1, 2010 - A memorable day at the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center
Saturday, May 1, proved to be a memorable day at the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center, as Center members met with representatives from the office of United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand; a museum-quality photographic exhibition in Apuzzo Hall was celebrated with a grand opening; and announcement was made of a matching gift which immediately doubled the size of the Scholarship Fund created at this year’s Gala, and which also will serve as a friendly challenge to join or renew memberships to the Center.
Senate Staffers Speak, and Listen
Over the course of two meetings, Jon Reinish, Sen. Gillibrand’s director of LGBT outreach, and Amy Pollard, the Senator’s regional representative from Albany, heard about a wide variety of concerns, ranging from the problems faced by LGBTQ seniors and youth, to workplace discrimination and “don’t ask, don’t tell,” to issues of particular concern to women and the recent rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, and much more. While learning about the breadth and depth of the Hudson Valley community as they heard from Center Board and staff and representatives from PFLAG, OLOC, Voice of Diversity and the Men’s Group, Reinish and Pollard in turn brought news of Sen. Gillibrand’s legislative initiatives in many of the very areas that were raised by those attending the meetings. The issues facing both LGBTQ youth and seniors in a largely rural region came up repeatedly, especially in relation to the problem of lack of transportation to meetings and events that would reduce a sense of isolation. Special attention was also paid to the committees on which Sen. Gillibrand serves – Aging, which has an obvious bearing on LGTBQ senior issues, as well as Foreign Relations, which prompted a wide-ranging discussion of the problems facing LGBTQ people around the world, from the Mideast to Africa to Eastern Europe, and how the Senator might be able to use her position to be helpful. Center members in attendance afterwards expressed appreciation for the visit, and characterized it was a constructive and positive exchange. Reinish and Pollard expressed the hope that similar visits with a similar exchange of ideas could take place three or four times a year.
Familiar Faces in a Special Exhibit
Cusie Pfeifer, a former Board member who was presented with the Spirit of the Center Award at this year’s Gala, was thanked for her tireless efforts to bring high-quality art to the Center’s first-floor gallery space in Virginia M. Apuzzo Hall, at an opening for “Particular Voices,” an exhibit of photographs by the late Robert Giard featuring portraits of many well-known (and some lesser-known) LGBTQ writers and activists from the 1970s to early in this century. |
 |
Cusie read from a description of the exhibition, noting that Giard’s full collection contains about 600 portraits and has been on display at the New York Public Library and Yale University. The selection at the Center includes 40 photos featuring such seminal LGBTQ cultural figures as Edward Albee, Quentin Crisp, Barbara Gittings, Leslie Feinberg, Armistead Maupin, Joan Nestle, Sylvia Rae Rivera, Barbara Smith and many more. The full collection can be viewed at: http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/SearchExecXC.asp?srchtype=CNO. If you wish to come see the Center exhibit, which will run through the summer, call 845 331-5300 for hours.
A Loving and Generous Tribute
