We are very excited to announce that this Friday, May 1, The Greater Dayton LGBT Center is partnering with CenterLink to present “May Day Home Stay Gay Play: The 20th Anniversary of QAF Cast & Crew Reunion Event to Raise funds for CenterLink - The Community of LGBTQ+ Centers”. We’ll also raise important funds for CenterLink and its network of over 250 local community centers in the U.S. and around the world. A portion of the money raised will go directly to the Greater Dayton LGBT Center.
The event will take place LIVE on Friday, May 1st, at 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET on YouTube:
The YouTube Link for the LiveStream (where you can go set a reminder) is: https://youtu.be/XRUfEudtSmQ
If you plan on viewing this once in a lifetime event we are asking you make a donation of any amount to CenterLink at: https://lgbtcenters.ejoinme.org/donate
Bid for auction items (and donate as well) here: https://ctrlink2020.ggo.bid/bidding/package-browse
Watch the promo video here.

Scott Lowell, who played Ted, will host the event that will feature actors Sharon Gless, Peter Paige, Michelle Clunie, Hal Sparks, Randy Harrison and Robert Gant, alongside creators Ron Cowen and Dan Lipman. Other names are expected to be announced shortly. In addition to chats and special conversations with the cast about the ground-breaking Showtime show, fans who tune in will have the opportunity to bid on Queer as Folk memorabilia and donate funds to support CenterLink and its network of over 250 LGBTQ community centers.
As you know, LGBTQ community centers, including The Greater Dayton LGBT Center serve as safe spaces for over 2 million people each year. During the epidemic, LGBTQ community centers are still providing critical services such as medical care, mental health counseling, virtual support groups, providing hot meals and check-in phone calls for older adults, serving youth and homeless youth, distributing nonperishable food items and hygiene products, HIV testing, and hosting virtual engagement activities to decrease social isolation. Given the current financial crisis and loss of revenue, LGBT community centers like ours could be forced to shrink our services, meaning hundreds of LGBTQ people could go without care.
We hope you will tune in to support The Greater Dayton LGBT Center and our partnering LGBTQ+ community centers across the US.

On April 9th we lost a giant in our LGBTQ community with the passing of Lesbian Pioneer Phyllis Lyon. Lyon was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on November 10, 1924, and passed at the age of 95.
Her obituary will be included in the May edition of the GayDayton Newsletter.

The Doom and Gloom crowd is always right… it doesn't matter what they predict – with them, it's always "see, we told you so!" or, if things don't live up to their predictions, it becomes "see, we told you so and you did what we told you to do and now things are better." Let someone even attempt to offer an alternative view and that person becomes just a stupid (racist, misogynist, homophobe, ad nauseum) idiot. Probably a whole bunch of other 'isms' and 'phobes' as well – just so we are all-inclusive!
Get a life!
There have been a lot of really nasty bacterial and viral attacks on the human species in the 19th and 20th centuries… remember H1N1? HIV? an endless list of mutations of other flu bugs?
Did we shut down the entire planet, not to mention our own country, during any of them back then? No.
Did we survive? Yes.
The Pheebot has to ask why we have shut down our entire economy?

The coronavirus is very real, our reaction to the coronavirus is very unreal. The Trump administration has mounted a tremendous, and very probably successful, effort to minimize the impact of the pandemic on the United States, despite the endless attacks, lies, and fabrications of the media and democrats. But, please! Yes, take care of yourself and your family by following health experts' recommendations, but stop your buying frenzy! Do you really need 200 rolls of toilet paper, 30 bottles of hand sanitizer, cases of paper towels, and carloads of cleaning supplies? Panic buying is causing very short-term shortages, but only because stores cannot restock their shelves anywhere near fast enough to keep up with demand. The supply chain of food and other necessities is more than adequate to meet American needs, but there are only so many trucks to move all that stuff to the stores and so many clerks to reload all the shelves. The major retailers, the big-box chains and even the small local dealers, are hiring hundreds of thousands of new temp and full-time staff to keep up. Give them a chance to do their jobs and refill our shelves!

Submitted by The Pheebot

New application and advertising forms are available for download right here on the GayDayton Pride page. Please note the new deadlines!

Dear Friends,

We all know that our world has been turned upside-down by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are all living a ‘new normal’ and we all have to take big steps to protect our health and the health of everyone in our community. It is with your health in mind that the Board of Directors of the Greater Dayton LGBT Center has decided to postpone our annual LGBTQ+ Pride celebration this year. It was a heartbreaking decision, but we are dedicated to hold Pride this year while doing what we can to keep everyone as safe as possible. The new date for Dayton LGBTQ+ Pride will be August 21-23, 2020.

We felt it would not be in your best interest to hold the festivities in June this year. The Ohio Department of Health has recently extended the Stay-at-home order until May 1st. Even if we are able to socialize after that date, we know that it will take our state and our community some time to bounce back both emotionally and financially. Pushing Pride back to August should give us the needed time to let this run its course and to overcome our current situation. It is our hope that the COVID-19 peak is long past by August and we are able to gather without the overwhelming emotions brought by this pandemic.

We hope that you and your family stay safe during this time of great uncertainty. Please feel free to reach out to The Center to help you with referrals for resources you may need during these uncertain times. We know the community is wanting to get through this and return to as much normalcy as possible. It is our firm intention to hold Pride in August this year, showing that we will once again RISE UP to conquer difficulties, united together as a community. We look forward to seeing you in August.

Sincerely,
R.J. McKay, President
Greater Dayton LGBT Center