This iconic Broadway for Orlando version of “What the World Needs Now”
is available for purchase and the proceeds benefit the GBLT Community Center of Central Florida. Here are a few photos of the Center this week, in the wake of the Pulse massacre for which it has been an anchoring location for our community.
you may be familiar with the Amazon series “Transparent”. Moira goes to group sessions at a similar type place in her fictional LA (near Palisades (?) I’m not familiar with Los Angeles). This is that place. Except in the show, their facility is humongous by comparison to the Center in Orlando; this is relatively speaking a hole in the wall that is also a beehive of activity. There are a few tables for folk to play dominoes during the day, for me reminiscent of the town squares in rural west Texas when the old men slouched in their felt “town” hats at card tables set up on the courthouse lawn. Playing dominoes & trading knives, expressions veiled.
Then there is free HIV testing & a fishbowl of condoms so you could ostensibly take a fistful had you the mind to. This and a counter, the information desk, a massage table set up by the streetfront window...what I want to point out tho is ALL the messages of sympathy, of solidarity, of care and unity and love covering most of the wallspace; it’s overwhelming, like trying to count the number of angels on the head of a pin.
The Pulse response has moved over to the Citrus Bowl now and the regulars are back, the domino players. At night there is a wide swath of groups that meet; the Center is constantly abuzz with activity every hour it’s open. Groups from AA to a variety of relationship type groups; for instance I’m sort of a lapsed participant in a trans group here; I don’t go so much anymore but that was my connection to the local community when I moved here some years ago. This hub was critical for me in those days; it’s still central for us. It’s that place for a small but bustling and active community.