The Keeper

January 19, 2016 8:17 AM

Gay City News profiles Robert Woodworth, on his retirement after thirty-two years at New York’s LGBT Community Center.
posted by roomthreeseventeen (1 comment total)

Perhaps you shouldn't expect it in a puff piece celebrating the retirement of a long-time manager of a community organization, but I wish there was at least an acknowledgement of the New York LGBT's Community Center's history a shunning some of the more progressive elements of that community through the years. The very same Gay City News reported on the Center's refusal to allow Sarah Shulman to read from her book Israel/ Palestine and the Queer International three years ago. Fortunately, the backlash against that decision was enough to get the Center to rescind a two-year ban on any meetings related to the Palestinians and the Israeli occupation.

Going further back, the Center also once refused Alan Ginsberg a forum to read his own poetry and the center and banned activist Sylvia Rivera from even setting foot on the premises for several years in the nineties.

I don't doubt that Woodworth did some good work in his 32 years, as much good has come out of the Center. But it would have been interesting to hear his reflections on some of the more controversial aspects of his tenure as well.
posted by layceepee at 8:43 AM on January 19, 2016 [1 favorite]