READING, Pa. | The LGBT Center of Greater Reading is kicking off Pride Month 2021 with a grand opening event for community residents.
The organization is rounding out its education programs with the opening of its new Community Training and Technology Center (TTC), an onsite resource available to provide education, developmental, and technological services to community members, they announced Friday.
They say the TTC builds on the LGBT Center’s existing services and status as southeast Pennsylvania’s leading training resource for LGBTQIA+ issues.
“We established the Training and Technology Center to respond to the need with the same top-tier, expert-level educational resources the Berks County community counts on us to provide, while also deepening our collaboration with partner organizations to reach broader audiences,” said Michelle Dech, Executive Director.
The addition of the TTC rounds out the LGBT Center’s educational platform, officials note, now including virtual, client-site, and onsite training at the Center.
The Center stated that the TTC grand opening sessions for Pride Month include LGBT 101 and an Introduction to the LGBT Center on Thursday, June 10 at 6:30 p.m., and Allyship on Sunday, June 27 at 4 p.m.
In further commemoration of Pride Month, the Center also announced a full slate of events that cover social gatherings, professional and family services, local businesses, health and well-being, and the arts.
“We’ve received a lot of feedback from the community that they want to celebrate Pride Month this year,” said Dech. “Our staff and board members felt we were in the perfect position to help people celebrate while safely bringing traffic back to our local businesses.”
Kicking off the 30-day line-up is the raising of the LGBTQ+ Pride Flag over Reading’s City Hall.
Highlights throughout the month include the first Rainbow Crawl of West Reading, featuring local shops, restaurants, and other vendors; a foster and adoption fair with local adoption agencies; a movie night; Pride “Play Days;” and drag events at the Reading Distilling Guild, the Center released.
The full list of events can be found on their website or on the Center’s Facebook page.
Throughout the month, the Center said it will commemorate the history of the LGBT community, significant events, and critical points of interest to today’s LGBTQIA+ community members and their allies through videos, photos, articles, and more.
