Founded | 1975 |
---|---|
Type | LGBT Community Center |
Location |
|
Area served | Delaware Valley |
Key people | Board Co-Chairs, Sue Gildea & Kira Kinsman Executive Director Chris Bartlett |
Website | http://www.waygay.org |
The William Way LGBT Community Center is a nonprofit organization serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and nearby communities, located at 1315 Spruce Street in Philadelphia in the Gayborhood. [1]
Chris Bartlett has been the center's executive director since 2010. [2]
This community center was founded in 1975 as the Gay Community Center of Philadelphia. Organizers purchased its current building at 1315 Spruce Street in 1997; the center has owned it since local businessman Mel Heifetz paid off its mortgage in 2005. [3]
The western wall of the community center features Ann Northrup's block-long mural, "Pride & Progress", with images of LGBT citizens who have contributed to Philadelphia's cultural and intellectual life throughout history. [4]
The center's programs include an extensive library, and programs in peer counseling, senior services, education, and arts and culture. [5] The center also offers numerous twelve-step meetings throughout the day and night, [6] and opened the Arcila-Adams Trans Resource Center in 2019 to centralize resources for trans people in Philadelphia. [7]
In 2021, the center collaborated with HIV/AIDS healthcare provider Philadelphia FIGHT to provide COVID-19 vaccines to LGBTQ people in Philadelphia. [8]
The center houses the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives, which collects and preserves local and regional LGBT documents and artifacts. [9] The archive is one of the most important collections of LGBTQ documents and artifacts in the United States. [9] Along with researchers from the ONE Archives in Los Angeles, archivists from the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives have been searching for unidentified men photographed at a gay wedding held in 1957. [10] The search, which began in 2013 and is still ongoing, was covered in both LGBT and mainstream press. [11]