For the first time in months, the New Haven Pride Center was alive again. At least 100 people filled the 50 Orange St. community center on Wednesday evening for an “open house,” mingling and snacking and browsing books and clothes. One of those attendees, 44-year-old Heather DuPerry, walk ed inside for the first time in her life with her best friend Sweetz. She found the feeling of “fitting in” — a feeling she could get used to — along with a pair of sparkling, technicolor combat pumps that fit her like magic. DuPerry found out about the Pride Center from Sweetz, her “bestie.” For the past two years, they’ve been working together as recovery coaches nearby on Temple Street. Sweetz had been to the Pride Center many times before — sometimes “every other day.” She used to stop by the clothing closet for interview outfits when she was applying for jobs. “I love that it’s open to any and everybody,” she said. She had missed the place. The organization had been shuttered since late February due to financial straits. The center owed over $200,000 in federal taxes, fees, and interest, stemming from several months in 2022 and early 2023 during which its nonprofit status lapsed. Despite the leadership change that followed and the center’s subsequent growth into a larger, ground-floor location, the tax debt haunted the organization. For a time after February, it was uncertain whether the Pride Center would open again. In the last couple of months, the center’s three remaining board members — Hope Chávez, Nick Bussett, and Chloe Lasky — undertook a fundraising marathon. They raised over $500,000 — enough to pay off the debt in full, while providing a cushion of funding to help the organization rebuild. As new board member Chris Freimuth told the crowd on Wednesday, the center won’t immediately reopen. Freimuth said that the board is working on hiring an executive director, creating a longer-term financial plan, and tackling other logistics involved in bringing a nonprofit back to life. The Pride Center could reopen to the public in a “few months,” Freimuth said. Tracey Virtue came all the way from Torrington, seeking to help rebuild.Ken Belisle (right) helped Ariel look for other teens in attendance.Kirill Staklo and Fable Burley, representing Trans Haven, hope for collaboration opportunities.Lynn, former Pride Center Director Juancarlos Soto, and Fair Haven Alder Frank Redente. The center is still “a little piece of my heart,” said Soto. Wednesday’s open house had been pitched as an opportunity for prospective new board members and volunteers to network with one another and chat with the current board, though many attendees simply wanted to be back in the space again. Half an hour into the event, the line to sign in and make name tags extended out the door. Kirill Staklo and Fable Burley came as leaders of Trans Haven, an organization based at 952 State St., to offer support. Burley noted that the Pride Center’s reopening comes as trans kids and teens are still reeling from local institutions’ decisions to restrict medicine-based gender-affirming care. “While there are institutions looking to make Connecticut a less safe space for LGBT people,” the Pride Center’s reopening can strengthen a sense of safety, said Burley. Ken Belisle returned with a hope that they could soon start volunteering at the center — a place that had served as a safe haven when they were in high school, growing up in a conservative family. Belisle said they want to work with young people, to pay forward the affirmation they received from the center as a teenager. They had an opportunity to start doing just that at Wednesday’s open house, as they helped a high schooler look for other teens. Tracey Virtue had come all the way from Torrington, where they said there’s a lack of queer-affirming community spaces, to express interest in serving on the Pride Center’s board. “Outside of these spaces, it’s been more dangerous for us,” they said — so “having people who know what it’s like” is all the more meaningful. Heather DuPerry with her new pair of boots. DuPerry isn’t used to having a community of people who know something about what it’s like. “I always had a curiosity” about women, she said, but she’d spent most of her life ignoring that part of herself. “I was inside hiding for a very long time.” That changed two years ago, when she started dating a woman for the first time — her former coworker, who’s now her girlfriend and “soulmate.” “I feel so at peace with her, so happy with her,” DuPerry said. Her embrace of dating a woman wasn’t hard. “She made it easy for me.” Asked if she’d like to share her girlfriend’s name, DuPerry beamed: “I’m proud of everything I have.” The name, fittingly, is Destiney. In addition to Destiney, DuPerry has her best friend, Sweetz, to witness and support her self-acceptance. The prospect of being surrounded by a larger queer-affirming community “would mean the world to me,” said DuPerry. She’s spent too long not being open about her feelings, she said. “I don’t want to short myself anymore.” She said that so far, the Pride Center feels “like fitting in.” She found at least one perfect fit on Wednesday: a pair of thoroughly sequined, pump-heel combat boots, gold and pink and blue and metallic purple, glittering as though they had come from Oz itself. Sweetz had been the first to spot the pair in the Pride Center’s clothing closet. She tried them on, but they didn’t fit — so she made sure her best friend got first dibs. The boots were exactly DuPerry’s size. They fit just right. They weren’t the kind of shoes she would normally wear — “I’m not a rainbow person,” she said — but something about the colors made her feel like they were meant to be hers. So she claimed them. The post Glitter Boots — Hope — Found At Pride Center Open House appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less