Thank you for both your editorial and a letter to the editor last week that brought to light concerns about The Center and our participation with art exhibits in our community.

Sometimes even when we try our hardest to do the right thing for all our stakeholders, we make mistakes. This was certainly one of those times, as we attempted to develop a partnership involving a local art exhibit before we had clear enough processes and guidelines in place. While we try hard to treat everyone and every group with the respect and professionalism they deserve, we fell short this time. We apologize for that. While we can’t ensure we always reach our goals, we can make sure we apologize when we fall short.

The issue of The Center being affiliated with a private art show brings up a lot of questions that we need to address, and, in hindsight, which we should have addressed already! Our staff and board of directors will be busy sorting through these issues and formulating policies and processes – with the help of community input and the help of artists, art educators and public art experts – so that our guidelines on these issues are clear in the future, and ensure every group and individual is treated equally and knows the process and is clear on the guidelines.

In addition, this particular circumstance also brings into sharper focus an issue that we’ve been grappling with at The Center for some time. How do we best serve our increasingly diverse community? How do we make a safe and welcoming place for all, especially if we do not have the private “adult” space that some organizations do? These are not questions that are easily or quickly answered. They are challenging conversations not just for The Center but for our entire community.

We continue to believe that with improved and more clearly defined guidelines, created by soliciting the suggestions and help of all community members, we can create a space and home where all are welcome and can participate.

As always, The Center can’t move forward and continually improve without the help of the community. If you have thoughts on what a policy or guidelines should look like, please forward them to Delores Jacobs directly at djacobs@thecentersd.org, and she will share them with our staff and board of directors.

Delores Jacobs

Chief Executive Officer, The San Diego LGBT Community Center

Richard Valdez

Chair Board of Directors, The San Diego LGBT Community Center