This Just in from the Ocean State
Gala sparkles
In November, the LGBTQ community came out to celebrate, well, themselves. And they clean up nice! Presented by Steve Leonard and The Stable, and held at the Graduate Hotel, the 240 black-tie clad attendees were treated to performances by Kitty Litter, LaDiva Jonz, Jessica Wild, Brita Filter and Jackie Cox, all hosted by Brita Filter (of “Drag Race” Season 12 fame) and Providence’s own Ninny Nothin. There was dining and drinking, and there was dancing the night away.
The event was a fundraiser, raising over $30,000 for Open Door Health (ODH), Rhode Island’s only health clinic focusing on the LGBTQ community.
“It was incredible,” said an ODH spokesperson. “From the moment guests stepped into the Graduate Hotel, it was a spectacle – staff and board members were gob-smacked!
Funds raised will be used to help with specific ODH expenses, such as covering the costs of treating patients who are un- or underinsured; ODH treats everyone regardless of their ability to pay.
Pride at Work
A small group with a big heart, Pride at Work has a mission to, as their website says, “seek full equality without restrictions or barriers for LGBTQIA+ individuals in Rhode Island workplaces, unions, and communities.” They are part of a national effort, although they have not yet achieved chapter status.
In late November, the group held an open house at Pawtucket’s Queer Art Collective, showing the trailer for the film “The Time is Already” and answering questions from the community. After the meeting, the assembled group headed over to Rhodium Distillery, which is right around the corner from the gallery and lesbian-owned.
More: prideatwork.org
Haus of Codec
Haus of Codec, Providence’s first emergency shelter designated for 18–25-year-old LGBTQIA+ youth, opened its doors on December 1, 2021, to its first residents facing homelessness, with six emergency shelter beds, and will be providing services through care providers like Youth Pride Inc., House of Hope CDC, Sojourner House, AS220, Project Weber Renew and AIDS Care Ocean State.
Haus of Codec holds monthly LGBTQQIA+ Art Marketplaces to create awareness of homelessness in Rhode Island, holding indoor markets at Farm Fresh RI, moving outdoors at Dexter Park on the West End of Providence in the spring. In addition, they will partner with PVDFest’s city-wide Arts Festival and Resource fair on June 5.
Haus of Codec plans to expand its campus to provide capacity for 40 individuals, with 16 supportive transition-based housing units leased on a month-to-month basis to low- or no-income residents and 24 emergency beds available nightly by lottery to those who either sign up online or at one of the shelter’s partner network agencies.
Student activism
Students in Bristol came together last fall to form the Mt. Hope Student Union. They credit the Providence Student Union for providing them with advice, publicity and inspiration.
In November, the group appeared before the Bristol-Warren School Committee to talk about racism and homophobia, referencing a recent vote in which some members voted against funding a program because the woman chosen to run it has an interest in supporting Black and brown students, which some committee members felt would disadvantage white students.
“When given an opportunity to embrace the Black and brown students in our school, you shut it down,” said student Luciano Camara, “because it didn’t suit all the students. ‘All Lives Matter’… is what you’re saying.”
The students are calling for the resignation of three committee members over these racist remarks as well as inaction regarding charges of homophobic and transphobic harassment and even physical assault at their school.
Block Island GSA
The Block Island School, the K–12 public school for the year-round community just off the Rhode Island mainland, gave their students the go-ahead to form the school’s first Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) in late 2021.
“I am really proud of the agency the students have shown in getting the GSA off the ground and I am looking forward to supporting them as they grow that community,” Mike Petrik, the newly formed GSA’s teacher-sponsor, told The Block Island Times.
“Students often comment on the challenges of not always having the built-in support system of like-minded friends with similar interests that could easily be found at a larger school,” Petrik said. “I think the same holds true for our LGBTQIA+ students, which is one reason I am so glad to see them taking an active role in developing that through the GSA and starting broader conversations at the school.”—RP
