The LGBT Community Center

The LGBT Community Center at 208 West 13th Street — universally known as "The Center" — is the largest LGBTQ+ community centre in the United States and one of the most important LGBTQ+ institutions in the world. Founded in 1983 in the West Village, during the catastrophic early years of the AIDS crisis, The Center was established on the principle that the community needed a physical home: a building where organisations could meet, services could be provided, and the social infrastructure of LGBTQ+ life could be built and maintained. It has fulfilled that mission with remarkable consistency for more than four decades. Today The Center hosts over 200 groups and organisations under one roof: support groups for people living with HIV, for LGBTQ+ youth, for trans people navigating the legal system, for elders, for immigrants, and for dozens of other constituencies. It provides mental health services, substance use recovery support, HIV testing and treatment navigation, and legal services. The building is also a cultural venue — exhibitions, readings, film screenings, and political forums are programmed regularly. ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power — the organisation whose street actions in the late 1980s and 1990s accelerated the federal government's AIDS response — was founded at The Center in 1987. For any visitor trying to understand New York's LGBTQ+ community in depth rather than on the surface, a visit to The Center is essential.