LGBT Activists Discuss Solutions to Bronx Intolerance

By Kristen Gwynne

Through a series of town hall meetings and other public activities, advocates and organizers are working to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender tolerance in the Bronx, a borough that gained a bad reputation for its intolerance last fall when a group of young adults in Morris Heights were arrested for viciously beating and sodomizing two youths and another man because they suspected the victims were gay.

On May 31, at a town hall meeting at the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, Bronx Community Board 7 and other local community organizers pinpointed lack of advertisement, religion, cultural bias and low socio-economic status as the main causes of the borough’s LGBT intolerance. To navigate these obstacles and improve the borough’s reputation, attendees and panelists suggested working with the police and increasing LGBT awareness, especially in notoriously anti-gay communities.

Health Conference Looks to Improve Care For Transgender Community

Freddy Molano and Catherine Abate (right) of Community
Healthcare Network, with transgender activist
Ashley Love, at last week's conference.
(Photo courtesy Community Healthcare Network)

On Friday, health care providers and transgender advocates gathered at Lincoln Hospital for a day of discussions on the specific health needs of the borough's transgender population--a group organizers say is often overlooked by the medical community at large.

The event was hosted by the nonprofit health care provider Community Healthcare Network and the Bronx Pride Center, the borough's only LGBT advocacy organization.

"Bringing together over 150 service providers and consumers has put transgender health on the health agenda for the Borough," said Bronx Pride director Dirk McCall. "We look forward to taking the next steps towards full equality for the transgender community."

Advocates say the transgender population has a unique set of health needs and faces several barriers when it comes to accessing proper care, including a lack of health insurance, using street hormones, self medicating, and significantly higher rates of HIV/AIDS infection.

Resurrecting Bronx Pride; Hate Crime Town Hall Meeting at Davidson CC at 6 p.m.

Bronx Community Pride Center (Bronx Pride), the borough's only LGBTQ social services group, is hosting a town hall meeting tonight at Davidson Community Center, 2038 Davidson Ave., from 6 to 8 p.m. All are welcome. It will focus on dealing with the fallout from the anti-gay attacks in Morris Heights in October. Topics will include: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning concerns, building community connections and how we can work together to prevent future attacks. BxNN recently sat down with Dirk McCall, Bronx Pride's relatively new executive director.

Dirk McCall admits he probably could be making two or three times more money working as a political lobbyist of some sort. But what fun would that be?

Bronx Pride's Dirk McCall

When faced with finding his next job earlier this year, instead of going the lobbyist route, McCall decided to tackle the daunting task of resurrecting a struggling nonprofit organization that was on the brink of extinction as recently as this past summer.

Yes, heading the Bronx Community Pride Center (Bronx Pride), the only social service organization solely dedicated to aiding the borough's LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning) youth, means less pay, more hours and more headaches. But McCall couldn't be happier.

"I wake up every day and thank the lord for this job," McCall said yesterday, in between talking about all the painful cut-backs and belt-tightening he's had to do to get Bronx Pride back in the black.

Born and raised in Georgia (he'll break out an accent when imitating his father), McCall is a widely known and well-respected New York Democratic political operative who most recently worked on the successful re-election campaign of Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

But now he's putting all of his energy (and it appears to be limitless) into Bronx Pride, which was thrust into the spotlight in October following the brutal anti-gay bias attacks that played out on Osborne Place in Morris Heights and made national headlines.

Bronx LGBTQ Youth Forum Tonight

We got wind of this a little late, but wanted to alert people to a forum being conducted tonight about how to build support for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, bisexual and questioning) youth. It starts at 6 p.m. at Bronx Borough Hall, 851 Grand Concourse.

This is one of a series of forums the city's Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) is organizing around LGBTQ youth issues in commemoration of National Runaway Prevention Month. It is also designed to build off of a report by the NYC Commission on LGBTQ Runaway and Homeless Youth called “All Our Children: Strategies to Prevent Homelessness, Strengthen Services and Build Support for LGBTQ Youth.”

Earlier today, we sat down with Dirk McCall, the relatively new executive director of Bronx Pride, the borough's only social services organization that caters specifically to the LGBTQ community. McCall and some of his staff will be in attendance tonight, as will members of DYCD and anyone else who wants to attend.

We'll have more on McCall's work to turnaround the struggling, but vital Bronx Pride group, which offers a bevy of services and support groups operating out of space at The Hub on 149th Street near 3rd Avenue. McCall said he wasn't sure exactly where the conversation was going to go tonight, but he will surely be advocating for more resources as they are sorely lacking.

Bronx Pride will be holding its own community forum on Dec. 9 at Davidson Community College.