Benefactor says gay youths in Utah need a place to feel at home

Beano Solomon believes all gay and lesbian youths need a place where they can feel at home. It's a vital role she believes the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Utah fills.

Solomon of Park City is donating up to $100,000 in a dollar-for-dollar match of funds raised by the GLBT Center for the remainder of this year. It's the largest individual donation the GLBT Center has ever received.

At Wednesday's "Calling All Angels" fund-raising breakfast, Solomon also said she'd double her match of new donations raised at the event held at the Hotel Monaco.

Executive director Valerie Larabee said preliminary numbers show $48,783 had been raised, with $38,763 in new donations.

"The kids need it, particularly in Utah. They need a safe place to go," Solomon said of the GLBT Center, on which she's sat on the board of trustees for about a month.

Last month, Solomon donated $32,000 to hire a full-time youth program coordinator and hold this year's Queer Prom.

The GLBT Center, first established in Salt Lake in 1973, is currently located at 361 N. 300 West. It is a meeting place for about 30 different groups and serves as a resource and community center for youths and adults. The GLBT Center also holds the annual Utah Pride Festival in downtown Salt Lake.

In mid-December, things looked bleak for the GLBT Center, when its new director Larabee was struggling to raise funds to keep the doors open. A Christmas fund-raising drive brought in about $43,000 and, not including Wednesday's breakfast, another $61,000 has been raised since Jan. 1, Larabee said.

The Center's coffee shop has closed, but no other programs have been cut, and Larabee said the GLBT Center is on track to raise its annual $476,750 operating cost.

"We're actually adding programs," Larabee said. Next year, the GLBT Center will host its first Winter Festival, an educational and recreational event that will feature a Valentine's Ball. Plans are also in the works to start a crisis hotline, she said.

Salt Lake City Police Capt. Kyle Jones said when his son came out, the GLBT Center helped him find a therapist.

"What could have been a major crisis ended up being a speed bump," Jones said. "The center is critical to the health and welfare of the community."

As a police officer, Jones said he'd only seen the "dark side" of the gay community before: depression, substance abuse, suicide, HIV/AIDS.