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Power in the Pen

Why Community Board 2 Should Support Our White Paper

Campaign Alerts | Cheyenne Rosado | Tuesday April 28, 2009 6:09

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Power in the Pen

Hey everyone my name is Chey. I’m a member of FIERCE and I’m here right now to talk about why the pier is important to me. The pier is important to me because it is a place where I can go to escape and act like my true self. I grew up in a very accepting family but I was never really sure if society would be accepting of who I was. Not as a person but as a LGBTQ youth.


I started going to the pier around 13 years old. I would go because I found it just a peaceful spot. I didn’t really know anybody there but as I kept coming. I noticed that there were a lot of people. Amongst them a good number were LGBTQ. So eventually I started talking to them and getting to know some of them pretty well, and I heard their stories and how the pier is a safe place for them to come and be with their friends. They didn’t feel threatened or anything like that. On the pier we hope to one day have an LGBTQ center so they know they can continue to have a safe space where they can be themselves and get the services they need to help them.

The pier is not only an important place for the LGBTQ community, but it’s an important spot to other people as well. Parents take their kids there to play. People go there to exercise; to just sit, think, take their dogs to the dog run. It’s a public place where so many people can come. However things are changing by the pier and we are hoping these White Paper recommendations will improve things.

Stuff is becoming too expensive. It's becoming more of a business than a community area. These recommendations we are asking for are to ensure that things stay around the way the space was intended to be: a safe and public community space for all. It’s not just a place for some who can afford to be here, or who fit certain criteria to be around there, but for everyone in and around the city.

The pier can be described in so many words: beautiful, peaceful, safe, a home away from home, a haven; the list goes on. I hope it can stay this way. Our recommendations are a way to make that happen.

 

~Chey, FIERCE Active Member