The Pacific Center for Human Growth, or simply the Pacific Center, is a community center focusing on

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

people.Mission and History
. Pacific Center website. 2011. Retrieved 17-01-2011. The center operates from a Victorian house on

Telegraph Avenue Telegraph Avenue is a street that begins, at its southernmost point, in the midst of the historic downtown district of Oakland, California, and ends, at its northernmost point, at the southern edge of the University of California, Berkeley cam ...

south of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

.Hate crime strikes gay and lesbian center
Matthew Artz. ''

Berkeley Daily Planet The ''Berkeley Daily Planet'' was a free weekly newspaper published in Berkeley, California, which continues today as an internet-based news publication. The ''Daily Planet'' is politically progressive, and offers endorsements of progressive a ...

''. 08-10-2002. Retrieved 17-01-2011. Front of Pacific Center for Human Growth 2011 1 19

History

The center was founded in 1973 as a response to a brutal

gay bashing Gay bashing is an attack, abuse, or assault committed against a person who is perceived by the aggressor to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). It includes both violence against LGBT people and LGBT bullying. The term covers vio ...

downtown Oakland Downtown Oakland is the central business district of Oakland, California, United States; roughly bounded by both the Oakland Estuary and Interstate 880 on the southwest, Interstate 980 on the northwest, Grand Avenue on the northeast, and Lak ...

, a major city that neighbors Berkeley. Often referred to as the Berkeley ''LGBT'' or ''gay'' Center, it is the oldest LGBT community center in the Bay Area and the third oldest in the country.

Will Roscoe Will Roscoe (February 8, 1955) is an American activist, scholar, and author based in San Francisco, California. Early life Will Roscoe was born on February 8, 1955. He grew up in Missoula, Montana. Gay activism Roscoe helped found the Lambda Alli ...

campaigned successfully in 1976 for

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates. United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public, prior to 2016. United Way organizations raise funds ...

membership for the Pacific Center, the first LGBT agency to achieve this. The Oakland-East Bay Gay Men's Chorus was founded under the auspices of the Pacific Cent in 1999 before becoming an independent organization. In 2001 the Pacific Center was involved in trying to help the city curb

cruising for sex Cruising for sex, or cruising, is walking or driving about a locality, called a cruising ground, in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, one-time variety. Published: 11-14-2007 Published: 9-21-2005 Article from NYT about ...

by men in Berkeley Aquatic Park by getting the city to set up a support network for

men who have sex with men Men who have sex with men (MSM) are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex. The term was created in the 1990s by epidemiologists to study the spread of disease among all men who have sex with men, regardless of ...

that do not identify as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

or bisexual. However, funding was never acquired. In 2002 the center was vandalised with anti-gay and neo-Nazi-themed tagging, considered a hate crime by the center. Flyers on the bulletin board at the entrance to the center were vandalized with the anti-gay slur " fag" and a swastika. When

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

legalized same-sex marriage in 2008, the youth group at the center marched around the neighborhood with the

rainbow flag A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the spectral colors of the visible light spectrum. The LGBT flag introduced in 1978 is the most recogniz ...

to celebrate the victory as the center was actively involved in campaigning for equal gay rights.

Operations and location

The center, along with Berkeley and the larger surrounding

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

is known for their eclecticism and liberalism and the Pacific Center is not different. In the past it has offered drag- quit smoking classes,

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

film screenings, and young queer women's groups among other unique initiatives. Today the center offers peer support groups alongside mental health counseling for LGBT people from the community.Services.
PacificCenter.org. ''Pacific Center website''. 2011. Retrieved 19-01-2011. There is also a drop-in after school program for LGBT, Questioning, and

Intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bin ...

youth. The center is located along the

AC Transit AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District) is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates "Transbay" ro ...

BRT BRT may refer to: Transportation * Block register territory, a method for dispatching trains * British Rail Telecommunications * Brookhaven Rail Terminal * Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, a former transit holding company in New York City * Bro ...

line and is within walking distance of

Ashby Ashby may refer to: People * Ashby (surname) * Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche of Ashby (1267–1314), governor of Rockingham Castle and steward of Rockingham Forest, England * Walter Ashby Plecker (1861–1947), American physician and publi ...

BART Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc. Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Bartho ...

station.AC Transit System Map
''ACTransit.org'' 2011. 22-01-2011.Retrieved

References

External links

Official website
{{LGBT in California 1973 establishments in California Organizations based in Berkeley, California LGBT community centers in the United States LGBT in California Organizations established in 1973