Latest news with #ComingOut
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sacramento LGBT Center considers reducing services as it faces funding cuts
The Sacramento LGBT Community Center warned that hundreds of youth, many at risk of homelessness or in crisis, could lose access to life-saving mental health counseling and gender-affirming care if the City Council fails to approve additional funding. A $500,000 loss for the center from a terminated federal grant has already affected youth and adult mental health services, said Executive Director David Heitstuman. 'We do have another $1.2 million in federal funding that could be at risk depending on federal action,' Heitstuman said. 'So, we are in a very challenging position as an organization that's sort of at the top of the target list for the administration, which makes this funding even more vital.' The center provides counseling, drop-in respite care, and community resource navigation under its mental health program. Additionally, the center holds Coming Out, Golden Grounds LGBTQ Elders, Transgender, and Twenty-Somethings support groups. Jon Garcia, director of youth and family programs, spoke at the May 20 City Council meeting and estimated that the center serves about 400 youth aged 14-24, who predominantly reside in the city of Sacramento. Of these 400, 20% identify as African American, 12% identify as Latinx, 42% are homeless or at risk of being homeless, and 17% have had prior foster care experience. At the center, 33% of recent mental health clients required emergency intervention for suicidal ideation or attempts, 84% of whom were youth, Garcia said. The center has requested $1.5 million from the City Council, through the city's Measure L to address this growing need. At the May 20 meeting, representatives from the center recommended the adoption of a scenario to provide $417,000 in funding. The council will vote on the funding Tuesday. During the meeting, Rene Kausin, youth development project manager for the city's Department of Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment, explained that the awards were funded by taxes on cannabis operations to child and youth services. The funds were then guided by an investment plan adopted by the city last September to support youth and youth violence prevention programming to nonprofits and public entities. Organizations that qualify must apply for the grants through a competitive process. The grants range from $25,000 to $500,000, pulled from a pool of $17.9 million. When asked about the implications if the center were unable to receive the grant, Heitstuman said that cuts would have to be made. 'It means that we're going to continue to have a big deficit in our region for LGBTQ-affirming services, particularly dire for low-income folks, who don't have access to be able to pay for an affirming provider,' Heitstuman said. 'And if we aren't able to secure funding to continue this program, it's going to mean that we're going to have to make service reductions.' Heitstuman is optimistic, though, that the council will approve the funding or create their own allocation plan to support the center. 'It's really, really hard to replace hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in grant funds with $20 donations,' Heitstuman said. 'With all the economic uncertainty and the lack of availability of funding at the federal and state level, we really do need to see local officials step up and support our business.'
Perth Now
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Cottesloe welcomes out-of-this-world spacemen art exhibition
Coming Out (Blue) Spaceman, artist Brendan Murphy and owner of Gullotti Galleries Paul Gullotti and Sitting Spaceman (Pink). Picture: John Koh Contemporary artist Brendan Murphy opened his blockbuster Australian exhibition debut in Cottesloe on Thursday, hours after unveiling a 7m spaceman sculpture he donated to Perth. The sculptor, painter and digital artist, who works from his Miami-based studio, launched his Life is Electric showcase at Gullotti Galleries, which is on display until July 10. The exhibition features 45 works ranging from vibrant graffiti-style paintings to carbon fibre sculptures of all sizes, including his renowned Boonji Spacemen, which represents embracing the unknown and the human desire to venture beyond. The opening comes after a custom-built Boonji Spaceman, titled Lightning, landed in Stirling Gardens outside Council House, where it will remain for the next year. SEE THE SOCIALS GALLERY BELOW Owner of Gullotti Galleries, Paul Gullotti, was overcome with emotion when talking about the moment he had secured a spaceman for Perth and a debut Murphy exhibition with help from former Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas. 'I just want to say something from personally from my heart about that moment,' he said during a speech. 'I've been in this business for 30 years now, what I've looked at today and what I've seen, I think I have to pinch myself, watching the smiles, seeing all of these people here, my phone hasn't stopped ringing. 'We need this kind of art here.' The new Boonji Spaceman artwork at Stirling Gardens. Credit: Riley Churchman / The West Australian However, the history-making landing of the spaceman has caused quite a controversy after it replaced the Ore Obelisk or The Kebab, which had been in place since the 1970s but was removed and put in storage in 2021. But it seems some people are warming to the idea of having the incredible piece after lining up to capture selfies to share on Instagram. Murphy said after making contact with Mr Gullotti and Mr Zempilas, he was hooked on gifting a sculpture to Perth. '(Mr Zempilas) sold me on Perth and his passion for the city and the city as a place that's looking to the future and there's a history of connection to space, so it was kind of a no-brainer,' he said. 'And that started a journey which, if I knew what it would have entailed, probably would not have taken that journey. But now that I'm here, everyone's been very nice and the city's gorgeous.' Murphy's spacemen can be seen in Knightsbridge, London and Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros baseball team in Texas. Murphy's art has been collected by celebrities including Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Ryan Gosling and Warren Buffett. Nadal's sculpture is a 2m tennis player called Vamos, which stands at the sporting legend's tennis academy in Mallorca. Murphy has also created a $25m diamond-encrusted statue for Saks Fifth Avenue in New York. He has held multiple exhibitions in the USA, Canada and Europe.
The Guardian
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The week in audio: Coming Out; The Great Post Office Trial; The Teen Commandments
Coming Out Radio AtlasThe Great Post Office Trial Radio 4/BBC SoundsThe Teen Commandments Sara Cox By far the most moving and absorbing piece of audio I heard last week was on Radio Atlas, the website that showcases excellent non-English-speaking audio documentaries. Before I get to the programme itself, I feel Radio Atlas may need a reintroduction (I just checked, and I first wrote about it in 2016). Set up and run by Falling Tree's Eleanor McDowall, it finds the best audio pieces from around the world and gives them a beautiful translation into English that appears on your screen, each word timed perfectly to those spoken, so that you're not rushing ahead or catching up. It does mean, of course, that you have to look at your phone when you're listening (unless you speak the language), but that's good. These shows need your undivided attention. Anyway, Coming Out is from Lithuania, made by Rūta Dambravaitė and Inga Janiulytė-Temporin for publicly owned radio station LRT Radijas's Radijo Dokumentika series. Billed as 'a tender love story, lived in private, across five decades', it's based around an extended interview with Vitalius, now 70, who tells the story of his 52-year relationship with Albinas, 85, whose memory is going. The pair met in a Kaunas city park, known as a meeting point for gay men and thus a place of danger. When Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union, the military police used to actively search for gay people to charge them – and worse. Vitalius tells his and Albinas's story beautifully. His childhood is devastating: he grew up in a village where he knew no other LGBT people and couldn't imagine they existed. 'A cosmic loneliness,' he says, and your heart breaks. This documentary is the first time he's ever spoken about being gay. Usually, when people ask about his and Albinas's relationship, he lets them assume that he is Albinas's son. Though there is a moment, towards the end, when he describes telling a shop assistant exactly who he is buying a ring for – 'It's for my man' – and, honestly, I burst into tears. The music, classical and opera, chosen by Vitalius himself, is hugely and suitably romantic. The story has a coda. During the programme, an impassioned Vitalius argues for his and Albinas's partnership to be treated the same as a straight one under Lithuanian law. The country only decriminalised homosexuality in 1993, and still doesn't recognise same-sex marriages or civil unions. When Coming Out was broadcast in early 2024, the online version became the most streamed episode in the show's history (it went on to win the Prix Europa European audio documentary of the year), and opened up a debate on human rights in Lithuania. It also led to a symbolic humanist wedding ceremony for Vitalius and Albinas, witnessed by 21,000 people, who signed the certificate. It was the first time Vitalius and Albinas ever held hands in public. Speaking of a righteous fight to be recognised, here's dogged Nick Wallis back on Radio 4 to report on the current state of play with the Post Office scandal. He has been reporting on this for 15 years, and there are 17 other episodes to The Great Post Office Trial if you wish to catch up, though after ITV's Mr Bates vs the Post Office I can't imagine there are many who don't know what went on. This brand new episode gives us some audio from the inquiry, which is still yet to deliver its report. Much of it is centred on ex-Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells, who doesn't come across well, being at once bewildered and bewildering; so incurious and sappy as to provoke laughter from the public gallery. We also hear from former post office operators Lee Castleton and Rooprit Gill, who are robust in their final victory, even though they're yet to receive full monetary compensation for what happened. Wallis is great at pushing both the new interim head of the Post Office, Neil Brocklehurst, and the MP Gareth Thomas, the minister now in charge of the victims' compensation, as to why everything's so complicated and is taking so long. Of the two, Thomas seems to be more on the case, though it still seems like wading through mud. 'You've got 92-year-old Betty Brown, who's heading towards the end of her life without having received full and final compensation… what are you going to do to make things happen quickly?' asks Wallis of Thomas. From his hemming and hawing, it sounds as if Brown will be lucky to get what she's owed before her 100th year. Radio 2's Sara Cox and her best friend, Clare Hamilton, have a new podcast, The Teen Commandments, in which they share insights on, and anecdotes about, raising teenagers and promise to reveal what they were like when they were that dread age. 'It's all karma,' says Hamilton. I get the feeling that, like many new shows, The Teen Commandments wants to recreate the intimate, funny vibes of Miss Me?, Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver's hugely successful podcast. But that's harder than it might appear, and The Teen Commandments is sort of there, but not quite. The episodes need a specific topic rather than a jovial ramble around the edges, and are in need of listener contributions too, which no doubt will come flooding in. Until then, it's a bit formless, veering wildly between Cox and Hamilton reminiscing about how cute their kids were when they were little, and impromptu masturbation – theirs, not their kids – as a way of finding the energy for what needs to be done. 'Procrasto-wank,' says Cox; a good name for it, but perhaps not quite what listeners were expecting.
