This coming Wednesday, August 20th at 11:15 AM, the Baldwin Center invites you to join in discussion and learn about what allyship in the LGBTQIA+ community means in their LGBTQIA+ Allyship 101 Workshop. The conversation will be facilitated by Justin Zeigler, the Assistant Director of Community Support, Youth & Family Services in Madison. You can register at myactivecenter.com or call the Baldwin Center at (203) 385-4050.
During Pride Month, which was in June, the Baldwin Center hosted an informative conversation with Lynn Discenza (she,her,hers), President of Stonewall Speakers, and volunteers Kristian Moraeu. The Connecticut Stonewall Foundation Inc., also known as Stonewall Speakers, is a volunteer-based speaker’s bureau composed of LGBTQ+ individuals and allies in Connecticut.
Lynn Discenza is a Catholic trans woman and an active member in St. Patrick-St. Anthony, her Franciscan parish in Hartford. Following her transition in 2019, she has served as a Eucharistic minister, sacristan, and co-leader of Open Hearts LGBT+ Ministry. Open Hearts provides educational opportunities to build and develop greater visibility and understanding of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) experiences within the church community, and develop faith-building outreach programming to the diverse spectrum of LGBTQIA+ people.
Discenza’s story began with her entering the seminary to be a priest. She then was married for 29 years and had children. She was bisexual and spent 8 years with a male partner, then at the age of 62 came out as transgender.
“It is never too late to come out. You need to be organically yourself,” Discenza noted.
Kristian Moraeu, a non-binary bisexual, spoke of his journey, when at the age of 13 he knew that he needed to come out to his family, and came out to his father. He presently is taking hormones for his transition and feels comfortable and at peace with himself at the decision.
Jacob’s path was much different. According to Jacob, his father’s family could have been posters for the “red, white, and blue” all-Americans. His mother’s family was Italian. “I was raised in a household of micro aggressions; my mother was not considered feminine, she wore work shirts, mowed the lawn, gardened, etc. My father cleaned the house, listened to Stevie Nicks, and drank. Neither were models of sexuality. My mother internalized her sexuality and was actually homophobic. My father came out in the 1950s, stopped drinking, and entered into a relationship. Unfortunately it was too little too late, and he committed suicide.”
Stonewall Speakers origin is linked to a specific case of violence against a gay man in Hartford, highlighting the need for education and advocacy to prevent such incidents. Richard Reihl died at age 33 in Wethersfield, CT. in 1988. He was the victim of a homicide. He was a graduate of Boston University and a senior systems analyst at Aetna. Richard was targeted and killed due to his sexual orientation. His terrible death made many of the citizens of Connecticut think long and hard about their attitudes towards people who happen to be gay.
After Reihl’s death, the gay community in Connecticut started a movement to have a speaker’s bureau in high schools and colleges to demonstrate that they were not “different”, and to date 70% of all schools in Connecticut have hosted Stonewall Speakers.
They changed their name to Stonewall in 1969 to support the Stonewall Rebellion, also known as the Stonewall Uprising. It was a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the LGBTQIA+ community against a police raid that took place in the early hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The events at Stonewall are widely considered a turning point in the modern LGBTQIA+ rights movement. The Stonewall Rebellion was not the first instance of LGBTQIA+ activism, but it was a pivotal moment that helped to galvanize the movement and shift public perception of LGBTQIA+ rights.
However, these rights are presently threatened, as the White House eliminated a crisis program aimed at preventing suicide among LGBTQIA+ youth. Since 2022, the National Suicide and Crisis Hotline has devoted specialized resources to young LGBTQIA+ people, based on data showing that they face an elevated suicide risk and often struggle with a different set of mental health issues than others. Going forward, the White House said these specialized services will end. The hotline will “no longer silo” LGBTQIA+ callers, but direct them to the suicide hotline’s general services instead.
For additional sources of information and support the following organizations are available:
- Bridgeport Pride Center, Marcus Brown, Executive Director of the year old Pride Center, said the aim of the Pride Center is twofold — to focus on “the resistance and fight we need to continue to have and how we need to protect each other (and) while we recognize we have more work to do, we have come a long way, so we need to celebrate those wins, too.”
- The Trevor Project is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1998. Focused on suicide prevention efforts for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth, they offer a toll-free telephone number where confidential assistance is provided by trained counselors.
- Triangle Community Center, Norwalk. The region’s largest nonprofit exclusively serving queer and trans communities. Their mission is simple but powerful: to empower and advocate for LGBTQIA+ people in Connecticut through community, health, and learning that is grounded in the belief that you belong.
- Health Care Advocates International (HCAI), Stratford, home to Connecticut’s leading LGBTQ+ and HIV providers since 1987. “Our LGBTQ+ friendly providers welcome you into a safe, judgement-free, and supportive environment free from stigma and discrimination. Fostering trust between our providers and our patients is essential.”
- Anchor Health, Connecticut’s leading health center for the LGBTQ community. “We provide groundbreaking, radically inclusive, gender-affirming, and sex-positive medical, mental health, and pharmacy care as well as supportive services to thousands of patients across Connecticut and beyond.” Anchor Health is located in Stamford and Hamden.
Barbara Heimlich spent 35 years as Vice President of Program Management and Research for Paragon Development, an international consulting firm, where she was responsible for new product and business development. She is the Features Reporter for the Stratford Crier.
