Gay Central Valley

Gay Central Valley works to provide resources, education and recognition to the underserved LGBT Community in the Central Valley of California. Our main purpose is to facilitate access to LGBT community members in order to allow them to meet their full potential. By providing physical locations, such as the Fresno and Merced LGBT Community Centers, we hope to be a bridge between the LGBT community and the greater community at large.

Our two main projects, the Fresno and Merced LGBT Community Centers, are vital to providing access to the LGBT communities in those locations. Through our LGBT Centers we are able to provide a safe space for the community to come together for education, collaboration and resources.

Gay Central Valley works with all other LGBT and allied organizations in the Central Valley to expand our connections and to strengthen our ablity to meet the needs of community members.

We have a strong presence through social media and our various websites in order to maintain a consistent presence in the community.

With programs such as The Rainbow Delegation, we reach across the aisle to the allied and international community to expand our support system.

Since our inception in 2009 Gay Central Valley has worked diligently to utilize all the tools possible to meet our goals. We operate several websites and participate in various platforms on social media.

Gay Central Valley and the Fresno LGBT Community Center are operated and staffed by an all volunteer work force. Our leaders have been involved in the LGBT Community here for almost a decade.

When we first opened the Fresno LGBT Community Center, traffic was low. Now, almost six years later, we have expanded our open hours to five days a week, with various LGBT interests being met on various days. We have an ever growing free media lending library. Starting in late 2012 we began to table at non-LGBT themed resource fairs and events, making our presence known to groups that do not normally have information about LGBT resources in the Central Valley. By doing that, we've seen a marked interest from those who would otherwise have never knows about the community in Fresno and the Central Valley. We now have a consistent level of phone and email inquiries as well as a healthy walk in presence at the Center. We are now consistently contacted by state and national groups to partner with them on various projects and events. Media all across the Central Valley use regularly as media contacts.