Merced LGBT Center closes, but organizers hope to reopen it

The Merced LGBT Community Center has closed after being open for almost a year, according to its website and a sign posted on its front door.

Fresno-based Gay Central Valley, the center’s parent group, said it has not been able to maintain a local staff and it never intended to run the center from the main office in Fresno.

“Daily operations will end today, July 1, 2015,” the online post states. “We are seeking someone else to take over the project and keep the Merced LGBT Community Center alive.”

The center’s lease is up at the end of the month, and organizers hope to line up a replacement agency by then, according to organizers. Other nonprofits sublease office space in the building as well.

The center, which is at G and 18th streets, is meant to be a place where lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other marginalized groups could go to feel welcome. It opened with a flag-raising ceremony on Aug. 30.

Chris Jarvis, the president of Gay Central Valley, said he is optimistic that another group will come through. “We’ve had a lot of response in the last 24 hours,” he said in a phone interview Thursday. “So, we’re hoping that we can make it work.”

The Fresno nonprofit teamed with Merced Full Spectrum, a local group that was attempting to get nonprofit status. Because Full Spectrum is not a registered nonprofit, it needed Gay Central Valley’s help to receive $20,000 in funding from the California Endowment.

Jarvis said, ideally, a Merced-based group would step in to run the day-to-day offerings at the center and eventually take over the funding side as well. “It looks like funding is available to some degree,” he said. “We just need someone to take on the project.”

Melissa Eisner, a board member with Merced Full Spectrum, said that since the center opened, several members of the board have moved out of the area.

She was optimistic the center would garner the extra help it needs, saying that losing the center altogether would be unfortunate. “It would be absolutely terrible,” she said. “There’s always people in there.”

The center had been a popular hangout for young people. Eisner said all of its offerings were free.

The center has also been a meeting space for Merced PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and We’Ced Youth Media, a local youth journalism program that publishes a magazine.

Andres Reyes, the coordinator for We’Ced, said his organization will do what it can to support the center. “I can say that We’Ced is very interested in staying in the space and also supporting the continued existence of a safe space for LGBT folks and their allies in Merced,” he wrote in an email.

The online post from Gay Central Valley takes note of last week’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage but says centers such as Merced’s remain important. “Marriage equality is not the end of our battle; it’s just the next step,” the post states. “We need spaces where those rejected and disenfranchised can walk through the door and know they are acknowledged.”

This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Merced LGBT Center closes, but organizers hope to reopen it."