A Tale of Two Cities: Northern Colorado reaction to communiy center change-up

I borrowed the title from Charles Dickens novel, but our tale takes place in 2012, and not in London and Paris during the French Revolution but Fort Collins and Denver.

Out Front Colorado broke the news Dec. 14 that the Fort Collins Lambda Community Center is closing its doors and that the Denver Center is opening a Northern Colorado branch in Fort Collins. LCC served the Northern Colorado LGBT community surrounding Fort Collins, and also the Weld County LGBT community with a satellite office in Greeley.

Since I’m involved in both the Northern Colorado and Denver communities I have a unique perspective for this story. I live in Weld County on the border between Fort Collins and Windsor. I’m in Denver frequently, whether on assignment for OFC or socializing with friends in the “Big City.”

I have talked with, and heard from so many of the Northern community – that with the closing of the FCC we have lost our gathering place – the one spot where we could all safely go for information or help. Opinions expressed in blogs and commentary vary – they are critical and also supportive about LCC programs (or lack of) and how they handled and informed us of events over the past year.
Unlike Denver, there is only one club to gather and celebrate at in Northern Colorado. (Thank you to Kate, Nick and Lesslie and everyone else at Choice City Shots for supporting our community for more than 15 years).

We have a spattering of GSA organizations in the public schools and two-year colleges, a strong and involved PFLAG group and active LGBT student organizations at both CSU and UNC. But aside from those and the former LCC, there’s not a lot to do if you are under 21 or don’t want to hang out in the bar or club scene.

As The Center opens its Northern Colorado office, they bring their in-depth experience with community events and with integrating the LGBT community into the host community. There are programs for all of us no matter of where we fall in the salad bowl.

Fort Collins has a small LGBT community made up of the entire spectrum of the alphabet soup. Ours is a very excepting LGBT community.  Everyone in the community is well accepted and included by everyone in the community.

I can’t speak for all Northern Coloradans – my thoughts here are mine alone. The advantage of writing a column gives me the opportunity on occasion to editorialize, share my thoughts and feelings instead of just reporting facts or photographs of events in our community.

I urge all of you here in Northern Colorado to contribute some of your energy, your ideas and time to grow our community. Watch for regular updates here in OFC and at The Center’s new Northern Colorado office. Be sure to share your thoughts and needs with our new center as it grows. l