OVERVIEW
Mission: The Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Center is building community and promoting the healing effects of social connection by hosting discussion and leadership groups as well as diverse activities and events for LGBTQ+s and Allies.
The Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Center was established in 1981, and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1983. The Center has been an incubator and catalyst for new and ongoing groups and organizations, reflecting the needs of the LGBTQ+ community at the time. Having a place of our own, a LGBTQ+ Center, was a need at the time, and still is today. To embrace his generous and loving spirit, the Center named itself after William Price, a popular, African American drag queen, Billy DeFrank. He supported everyone in the community in the 1970’s. He died in 1980 of a heart attack. Sadly, his legacy got buried under the AIDS epidemic during the 1980’s and into the 1990’s. However, his inclusive spirit lives on in the Center, even for allies, visually depicted as a giant mural.
