Philadelphia's LGBTQ Community Addresses Issues, Seeks Solutions
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia's LGBTQ community came together at the Broad Street Ministry in Center City Thursday night for a special interactive forum.
The Community Conversation was hosted by the Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs along with Mayor's Commission on LGBT Affairs.
"Providing an unprecedented opportunity for community members to come together and talk about pressing issues that are affecting the community as a whole and come up with collaborative ideas and ways to reach solutions," explains Executive Director of the Office of LGBT Affairs Amber Hikes.
The event focused on numerous concerns....
"To be able to kind of dispel any kinds of myths or misconceptions," Hikes adds. "Really give truth to power, be able to speak with their own voices."
But the main topic of discussion dealt with the Mazzoni Center, which provides health and wellness services to the LGBTQ community in town.
"Just want to provide a platform for staff members who are in Mazzoni," says Hikes, "for the board of directors, the interim CEO to be able to discuss some of the concerns they've had, to be able to address community concerns my office has received."
Among the several hundred LGBTQ community members on hand was Bill Chenevert.
"I'm hopeful to be a part of a well-spring of positivity and change for the better," he says.
As for the Mazzoni Center, Chenevert wishes it can "emerge as a bastion of light and a powerful force of good in the LGBT community in Philadelphia."
This was the Office of LGBT Affairs' second Community Conversation recently.
