Transcripts

ELISSA RAFFA: I think the main thing to look at is what's available for lesbian and gay youth right now. There are some things that have been very successful that have existed for a while, including weekly support groups, but it's not enough. And our whole premise is that it's not enough.

And what lesbian and gay youth need is a place, a public place where they can just show up and meet other lesbian and gay youth and have some chance to socialize without the pressures that exist in other places.

Most schools are a pretty difficult place if you're young and out. Most teen clubs or neighborhood centers, if you are out, you experience one form of harassment. And if you're not, then you experience a problem of being made invisible or having your reality and your issues not recognized by anybody else. So this is a place where somebody can walk in the door and know that those kind of stresses don't exist for the time that they're there.

JIM WISHNER: Talk a little bit more about what alternatives they have now. Where do they go? What do they do?

ELISSA RAFFA: Well, what I have been connected to is I've been a facilitator of a couple of groups, one called Young Lesbians and Friends and one called Lesbian and Gay Youth Together. And there are several others.

Basically, the groups exist either through community centers or through the schools, sometimes sponsored by churches. And they're usually about two hours a week where gay and lesbian youth can get together with adult facilitators there and do a range of things from having supportive talks about certain topics to maybe having a planned activity, going to a movie together or something like that.

Those are the things that are specifically geared towards gay and lesbian youth. And there are a lot of other things that exist that youth go to, they're not necessarily welcome. It's not necessarily legal for them to be there.

I think a lot of the young people that we've worked with spend time in the bars because that's the place where lesbian and gay people meet. A lot of them spend time just hanging out with friends or doing what normal youth do, but having this added sense of not belonging that we're trying to address.

JIM WISHNER: What specifically will the coffee house offer? You've mentioned some of the reasons why it's needed, but what will it offer them? What will be the attraction? What will be the benefits?

ELISSA RAFFA: I think there'll be a range of things. We would like to have some time, maybe at least a couple of nights a week where there would be dancing, where it would be very much socially-oriented.

And we have from the beginning had a youth advisory board and we're absolutely counting on them to tell us what will be attractive, what will be hip, because I don't think that any of us who are over 30 anymore know what music, what look the place should have.

And there will be some nights where it's really specifically geared towards attracting a fairly decent sized crowd for dancing. But I think there'll be other times when we have more quiet kinds of programming, which could range from a time in the afternoon when you can just come and buy a cup of coffee and sit and talk, to structured things like the youth groups that exist now could possibly at times borrow or rent space within the center.

So there would be a schedule and people could know, if I want to talk about this kind of thing, I can show up at this time. If I want a women only group or a men only group, I can come at this other time.

If we want to work on a project, do things like get active in gay pride, or work on an education project or something like that. So there will be both serious kinds of programming and pure fun kinds of programming.

SPEAKER: And just time to get together and learn to socialize. I think a lot of times the youth are afraid to interact perhaps with their peers in school or react authentically with their peers in school or at home. This is going to be a time where they can come together and just learn to socialize with members of their community.

JIM WISHNER: Do you expect any community opposition? I understand there's these facilities exist in other cities, but you're talking about San Francisco. Do you expect any opposition along the way or from the community?

ELISSA RAFFA: I think there will be opposition. There always is. But there's also a surprising amount of support. And I think that the decision that the Minneapolis Foundation made to fund us at twice the level we asked for as an example of the kind of support.

Since that news broke in the papers, we've also had a steady stream of phone calls from people saying, I can help in this way and I can help in this way. And I think that there will be vocal critics. But in general, we're looking to be in some neighborhood where we can get support from a wide base of people.

JIM WISHNER: Mayor Fraser of Minneapolis has been an advocate of youth center in downtown for all youth, regardless of sexual orientation or race. Why do you feel there needs to be a separate gathering place?

SPEAKER: I think for gay and lesbian youth, there's certain needs that are not addressed in a center that would be dealing with the main population, the mainstream population.

I think that there is a perception and not unjustified perception that it's not safe to be out in a center like that. That lesbian and gay youth would not feel comfortable in being open in a center like that. And there's always a fear of physical violence or verbal violence if it were known in a main population.

ELISSA RAFFA: I think the other thing is that we are about creating an alternative, not the only place that these youth will go to, not a separate place, but kind of a home base for them.

Some of them, if there was that kind of a youth center that Mayor Fraser has been talking about for a long time, would probably go there, too, and they would probably get things out of being there that they wouldn't get from our center. But then they would always have a gay and lesbian place to come home to, to feel strengthened by.

I think that sometimes having those kinds of places where you're not in the minority makes you more able to go out into the world and deal with being in the minority.

JIM WISHNER: What will this facility be able to do in terms of AIDS education and a clearinghouse for AIDS information? Will that be part of its function?

SPEAKER: I think that that would certainly be a very important function of the center as well, is that it is a place where people can access information about AIDS education, about safe sex, along with a vast array of information they can access there.

ELISSA RAFFA: Resources about housing, education. I think that there is some good work already being done about AIDS education for youth, and that we would be happy to help support some of that, occasionally house things, hand out leaflets or hang up posters.

But there are other issues that gay and lesbian youth and youth in general have to deal with that we would expect that we would be a referral or resource center for those kinds of things.

JIM WISHNER: The Minneapolis Foundation grant will cover, what, about one quarter of the cost. Where's the rest of the money going to come from?

SPEAKER: We are continuing to write grants to other foundations and organizations both in this region and outside of the region. We're also making direct contacts with individuals in our community to try and raise funds from people that we know and people that we don't know.

People have been very generous and are very excited about the birth of this center. They're really very excited about it and have been an extremely supportive.