ANNOUCEMENT

Dear Newburgh Family,

With summer just around the corner, we are about to enter a busy Pride season. For many, this is a joyful time of planning, community, and fun, and we have long been looking forward to a summer jam-packed with festivities. Though this is still the case, we write you today to share some important news: the Newburgh LGBTQ Center has come to a decision NOT to hold a Pride festival this year.

This decision was not an easy one, and is part of a larger organizational pause we plan to take in order to conduct an internal audit of our projects and capacity. For the past two and a half years we have been forced to radically change how we think of community organizing in the face of crisis. We pivoted to meet the needs of a community facing not only a pandemic, but systemic and racist police violence and anti-queer and -trans hate. After several years, we are stretched thin, and as the landscape continues to change—as we return to in-person meetings and face an even steeper rise in anti-trans legislation—it is crucial that we take this time to assess and reflect. 

Although we will not organize our own Pride festival, we will continue to highlight and support other queer orgs in the Hudson Valley throughout Pride season. Certain Newburgh Center programs (including Queers for Justice programming) will continue as well; if you are not already, be sure to follow us on social media to stay up-to-date with our ongoing programs. You can find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NewburghLGBTQCenter/ and on Instagram as @newburghlgbtqcenter.

This pause will apply most especially to new programming and program expansion. We will not, for the time being, introduce any new programs, and will be taking a critical look at our existing projects in order to ensure that we are meeting the most urgent needs of our community and making the best possible use of our team’s capacity and resources. Programs and projects which have already been paused will remain on pause until we come back as an organization, with the exception of the Queer Relief Fund, which will resume once we have completed a series of summer fundraising efforts. In order to help facilitate summer fundraising for our ongoing programs, including QRF, we are happy to welcome Jules Post Farr to the team as our new grant writer and administrator.

We are NOT disappearing, but we, too, are human, and we, too, must rest, reflect, and recover if we are to survive these changing times. 

On behalf of the entire Newburgh LGBTQ Center, we thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. Otherwise, we look forward to reuniting with you in the future—more focused, refreshed, and ready to take on the challenges we face.