Affirmations (Ferndale, Michigan)
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Affirmations' logo
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| Motto | People Building Community |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1989 |
| Type | 501c3 |
| 38-2882823 | |
| Focus | LGBT communities |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 42°27′39″N 83°08′17″W / 42.46079°N 83.13801°WCoordinates: 42°27′39″N 83°08′17″W / 42.46079°N 83.13801°W |
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Key people
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Darrious D. Hilmon (executive director) |
| Website | www |
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Formerly called
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Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center |
Affirmations is a Michigan nonprofit community center serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population of Ferndale, Michigan, and nearby communities.
Affirmations was founded in 1989 as Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center to serve LGBT people in Southeast Michigan. Affirmations was incorporated by Jeff Vitale and Laura Horowitz. The original by-laws were written by Jeff Vitale and Gary Roberts. Vitale and Roberts met when Roberts answered an ad Vitale placed in Metro Times for GLMPSE (Gays and Lesbians Mobilizing Politically, Socially and Economically) a short-lived organization also founded by Vitale. Vitale served as the founding president of Affirmations. He and Roberts assembled the first board of directors. Roberts served on the first board as vice president not president as reported by Between the Lines. Jan Stevenson became the second president when Vitale took a Market Research position in Chicago where he shortly thereafter founded Overlooked Opinions, the first market research and polling firm specializing in the lesbian and gay community in the United States. Jan Stevenson coined Affirmation's first motto "Gay is Good."
Originally, affirmations was housed in a building owned by the Michigan Organization for Human Rights (MOHR), and was funded through community donations as well as a small grant that was obtained by one of MOHR's volunteers for a community hotline prior to Affirmation's formation. When MOHR questioned the need for a center such as Affirmations, the organization was moved to its second home a Detroit building owned by inaugural board members Sue Pittman and Christine Puckett. Around 1990, the center moved to the Pioneer Building on West 9 Mile Road in Ferndale. During the organization's first two years, a group of volunteers operated a coming out group and a support and referral hotline for LGBT people.
The center hired its first executive director, Jan Stevenson, an inaugural board member and later board president, in 1991 and expanded its programming to include hosting local LGBT groups and a program for local LGBT youth, funded by a US$150,000 (equivalent to $256,000 in 2016) gift from the estate of Carl Rippberger following his death. The center opened an art gallery in 1992 named after Pittmann and Puckett, who were murdered in May 1992 in an apparent hate crime by a neighbor. Stevenson resigned in 1995 to become publisher of Between the Lines. She was succeeded by Julie Enzer and Cindy Woodbury.
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Wikipedia