Almost every major city in the US has an LGBTQIA+ center that is there to serve the community. However, not all are there to serve. Some major non-profit organizations are actually making money from the innocent people they claim to serve.
Here are 5 clues that your local LGBTQIA+ center is a fraud.:
Clue # 1 – They do not respond to your inquiries
You have emailed them and waited for some type of response. You have called them and left messages on their voice mail and no response. You’ve gotten in touch with a real person and they transfer you to another voice mail and still no response. Everyone has something they need. Either help with a personal issue, legal issues, or maybe to find out how they can be helped in some way. Sometimes we in the LGBTQIA+ community would like to know what is around us and would like to be part of a larger community. It’s bad enough that we feel alone in the world. But to have an LGBTQIA+ center do the same, to exclude you because they don’t know who you are. Ask yourself if they are only responding to people they already know. That means they are a clique and they don’t want anyone new in their clique. So they ignore all your messages, your voicemails, your attempts to get some type of information.
They should at least answer with, “You’re not one of us, get lost loser.”
Clue #2 – They play the let-me-transfer-you game
After so many calls, emails, and voice messages you get a response. Not the one you expected. You get a call that your message was transferred to someone else. You get an email that it has been forwarded to another department. You’ve been removed from one person’s responsibility and transferred to another and then another. Why is this happening? Are they really that busy that they can’t take five minutes to listen to what you need? Wait. Let me transfer your questions to our Department 13.
They should transfer the call to someone that actually cares.
Clue #3 – The only offer one sentence answers
There’s another type of response. The one sentence answers. They’re not even answers. It’s a statement. “We have received your query.” Or “We have forwarded your message to Department 13.”
They should answer with, “We do not want your kind of gay in our center.”
Clue #4 – Same board of directors year after year
The LGBTQIA+ center has been in operation for a few years. It has the same board members, the same volunteers, and the same events. This is a clique and you’re not invited. It’s almost like Fight Club unless you know someone on the inside you might get in. Or if you sleep with someone and then you’re a shoe in. It happens all the time. We have a tendency to create cliques. The LGBTQIA+ community is not different.
But it shouldn’t happen, especially not in a center that claims that they are LGBTQIA+ focused.
Clue #5 – Company website is not up to date and lacks information
The best way to find out if a company is who they claim to be you go to their website. Tada. There it is. It’s incomplete, it has outdated information, and it makes no sense what so ever. You try to figure it out, but unless you know how to read the map of Narnia you can’t follow it. It gets better, you go to the contact us page and see that most of the people who are in charge are not listed. It’s an empty page with only the name of the center, the address, and phone number. It has a fill in the blanks form that you have to fill out and hope you get a response. See the above clues.
If there’s an LGBTQIA+ center in your city, double check to see if it’s a fraud. There should be laws against that type of behavior. Taking advantage of someone who needs help. Unheard of. Wait. Check out most of the non-profits in the news. They only get away with it because we let them. Stand up for your rights and for the rights of others.
