Overwhelmingly, the feedback we receive about The Center is positive. In the last five years, the formerly troubled organization has flourished. Services have expanded and segments of our community that were once isolated or underserved have since been brought into the fold and have found a home. We’ve witnessed the addition of the Latino Services Center, increased services for women and seniors, a thriving Hillcrest Youth Center and the newly-established Youth Housing Project, among the first of its kind in the nation.

The Center has grown and so has the community. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are now more than just a letter in the GLBT acronym. GLBT families are in full bloom, and leagues of straight allies seem to multiply every day. Two members of The Center’s board of directors are straight.

This growth and acceptance by the community at large, however, has undeniably created new challenges. As Delores Jacobs, The Center’s chief executive officer, writes this week in the Gay & Lesbian Times (page 37), “with our increased visibility comes increased scrutiny.”

The Center recently gutted their support from an art exhibit, entitled “Beyond the Surface,” because the show contained non-erotic full-frontal male nudity. According to the artists, the exhibit’s aim is to represent a slice of the contemporary gay experience. The body of work is said to challenge conventional stereotypes, and it attempts to depict the gay male identity beyond the one-dimensional and unrealistic representations portrayed in today’s media. Proceeds from the adult-only event, which premiered at Limbo Gallery last Saturday, were slated to benefit The Center, but plans for a follow-up exhibit and benefit were scrapped when The Center grew uncomfortable with the show’s inclusion of full-frontal male nudity.

The debate over what is art has raged for centuries. While we were assured that The Center is in no way determining what is or isn’t art, they did say that slapping their logo on promotional materials for the exhibit would be red meat for ex-gay antagonist James Hartline and other opponents of the organization. Including Beyond the Surface in its weekly e-mail blast, for example, would not only light up the phone lines but call into question The Center’s reputation.

There was nothing lewd or inappropriate about Beyond the Surface – we saw the exhibit. The images in the show are powerful representations of underrepresented members of the gay community, stripped to their naked surface to show the truth and beauty of body and form.

Our community has long been a proponent of, and has fought tirelessly for, the freedom of sexual expression and of the arts. Are we so fearful of what the mainstream community may think (now that we’re gaining their acceptance) and the wrath of demagogues such as Hartline that we will willingly compromise the rights and values we have spent decades fighting for in exchange for mainstream acceptance, domestic partnerships or the right to marry?

The leather community has expressed similar sentiments about The Center’s shift in focus. San Diego Leather Pride’s annual contest has since had to find a new home after a photo of men in assless chaps (albeit with G-strings) surfaced from last year’s contest, which was held at The Center.

Yes, The Center serves families. And the addition of the Youth Housing Project will bring increased scrutiny to the organization. But this brand of conservatism seems specific to San Diego. For example, Jim Key, chief public affairs officer for the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, said he doesn’t recall any group being denied access to their center, and said art with full-frontal nudity is actually on display inside the L.A. center’s main facility, except in common areas where youth have access.

Mixing our community’s rapidly changing demographic with its history rooted in freedom of sexual expression is no easy task. San Diego Pride, for example, has decided that youth 17 years old and younger who want to enter the Pride festival at Marston Point this summer will need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

The definition of our community has changed, and our events will have to adapt and change as well. But in making the distinction that one type of art is appropriate while another is not, The Center has applied its own brand of morality that steps way out of line with the majority of the community it serves.

Celebrating diversity – of things that are legal, of course – should not include a “run and hide” element. Many of The Center’s founders and funders will most likely feel a loss of dignity and pride in our community center’s newly closed doors. Had they adopted the philosophy of allowing our detractors to determine our behavior, arts and cultural events, Pride celebrations and entertainment venues, the colorful diversity that exists today would have remained in the dark, unlit alleyways of times past.