Oakland designates new LGBTQ Cultural District
For the first time, the City of Oakland has an LGBTQ Cultural District for Pride Month.
In November 2023, City Council passed a resolution to make the Lakeshore area a safe haven for those in the queer community.
Comittee chair of the Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District, Jeffrey Myers said he knew this area was special the first time he visited.
"Oh my god, all these gay people, this is gay heaven," said Myers.
Myers moved to the Bay Area nearly two decades ago, after years of feeling unsafe being himself.
"Coming from the south where I'm from - Charleston, South Carolina - I didn't feel accepted," said Myers about his hometown. "I was in the military, so I wasn't out until I really started to believe in myself and feel like I could authentically be myself. But it took years to get where I'm at today."
Myers believes making this area more welcoming for people in the queer community could have a life saving impact, and he's not the only one. Committee member and Chief Operations Officer of Oakland's LGBTQ Community Center, located in the heart of the Lakeshore area, Dawn Edwards, shares his sentiment.
"Families, individuals, youth know that there's a safe space, a welcoming space that they can come that they can get services, that they can get good food that they know people can welcome them with no judgement," said Edwards.
About a year ago, the committee took the idea of a Cultural District to city leaders.
"The city council believed in us, the city believed in us, the community believe in us," said Myers, regarding the support.
The effort received no opposition. But Myers said knows LGBTQ people throughout the world have been on the receiving end of a lot of hostility, which is why areas like the Lakeshore District continue to so important.
"We have to have safe place for where kids and transgender [people] and elders can feel safe, hold hands, feel like they belong," said Myers.
Myers hopes in the future that the Lakeshore area is just as important to the LGBTQ+ community as The Castro. He wants the area to be a sanctuary for the community.
