ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown is one step closer to getting an LGBTQ+ cafe in the coming years.
Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center held an event Thursday to launch a public capital campaign to build a new coffee shop and gathering space called Pride Café.
- Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center met its funding goal to build a new Pride Café through donations and state budget funding
- The café would hold community events and a career readiness program for LGBTQ+ youth
- Pride Café likely will open in 2024
The center privately raised $300,000 of the $575,000 goal to build the café.
But at the event, state Sen. Patrick Browne made a surprise announcement that, through the state budget, he has secured the rest of the funding needed to meet that goal.
“The city can only succeed when all its members feel part of its community,” Browne said. “Places like the one we stand in continue to make our home a more equitable place, helping to ensure that no matter what you look like, who you are, where you're from, or who you love, you have an equal chance at opportunities.”
The room burst into applause at the announcement, and some in the audience wiped away tears.
“I was crying,” Bradbury-Sullivan Director of Finance and Operations Krista Brown-Ly, said, “I had no idea that that was what was coming. I've received gifts before at other places where I've worked. And that, I think, is one of the largest gifts I've ever seen in youth programming. So I'm thrilled and very excited.”
Plans for the café
Bradbury-Sullivan Interim Executive Director Bill McGlinn said Pride Café would be built in the center’s garage, which now is used for storage. It would hold open mics, poetry readings and other community events.
The café also would have a career readiness program for LGBTQ+ youth, providing them with job training and experience in an affirmative workplace.
McGlinn said plans for the café are the centerpiece for a new phase of the center’s youth programming. He said he wants the new programming to help LGBTQ+ youth be holistically healthy.
“I really wanted people to stop thinking of our LGBTQ+ youth, viewing them as, ‘Oh my God, you're so resilient.’ And then what? Great, you're resilient. So where are we taking people beyond the acclaim of resiliency?”Bill McGlinn, Bradley-Sullivan LGBTQ Community Center Interim Executive Director
“I really wanted people to stop thinking of our LGBTQ+ youth, viewing them as, ‘Oh my God, you're so resilient.’ And then what?” McGlinn said. “Great, you're resilient. So where are we taking people beyond the acclaim of resiliency?”
Brown-Ly said youth will be able to get involved in every aspect of running the café – not just making coffee and serving customers, but also managing finances and planning events. Youth also will be involved in developing plans for the café before it is built.
McGlinn said he has entered into contracts with Boyle Construction, and they have nearly completed the design-to-build phase of the project, or creating the architectural renderings and the engineering schematics of how it would be built.
The next phase of the project is to solicit bids from companies to manage the construction of the café.
McGlinn said Pride Café will likely open in 2024.
