Pride Center set to open in TA as city holds gay parade

Center will house everything from an art gallery to plays, conferences, a caf?, and HIV/AIDS support groups.

By GAL TZIPERMAN LOTAN
gay pride flag 88 (photo credit: )
gay pride flag 88
(photo credit: )
The Pride Center is scheduled to open with an art exhibition in Tel Aviv's Gan Meir with Friday's Gay Pride Parade, and will house everything from an art gallery to plays, conferences, a café, and HIV/AIDS support groups, city council member Itai Pinkas told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. He said the center would be open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. "We conducted a survey of over 3,000 people to see if such a center is needed, who would use it and what people want to see in it," Pinkas said. He initiated the project after promising a center for the gay and lesbian community in his election campaign five years ago. Almost all reactions so far had been positive, Pinkas said. "There has been a lot of support. I think all of central Tel Aviv can enjoy this center," he said. The NIS 2m center was sponsored by the Tel Aviv Municipality. Asher Gelman, a dancer and immigrant from Washington, DC, sponsored the dance studio in the center through the Goldman Fund, Pinkas said. "The center symbolizes the pluralism and tolerance that characterize Tel Aviv-Jaffa," Mayor Ron Huldai said in statement. "The city encourages and invites anyone to live in accordance with their belief and free will." Huldai expressed a hope that the center would soon become undistinguishable from other community centers, and that the gay and lesbian community would be an integral part of social and cultural life in the city.