Ann Arbor councilman reports receiving ‘threatening, homophobic mail’
Updated 10:19 AM;
Today 10:19 AM
Ann Arbor City Council Member Travis Radina, D-3rd Ward, talks about facing anti-gay harassment and speaks out against Council Member Jeff Hayner s use of a homophobic slur to attack journalists on social media.CTN
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ANN ARBOR, MI After speaking out about an Ann Arbor City Council colleague’s use of a homophobic slur on Facebook, Travis Radina said he received anti-gay hate mail.
“This weekend, the fallout against our LGBTQ community continued,” Radina, who is openly gay, told his colleagues at the council meeting Monday night, April 19.
The Jim Toy Community Center, located on Braun Court in Ann Arbor, is closing their physical location at the end of Jan., 2021, however, the online atmosphere will remain open for all.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed two new members to EMU’s Board of Regents at the end of Deember. In city news, the Ypsilanti City Council expressed affordable housing concerns with the Kaufman Jacobs development plan for Water St., and the Jim Toy Community Center will close its physical location at the end of January. Listen to this week’s news recap podcast on your favorite podcast provider, or read the transcript here.
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Jim Toy Community Center President Joe Schoch says the center will continue operations virtually through platforms like Facebook and Zoom. The longstanding LGBTQ organization says, from a financial standpoint, it doesn’t benefit them to pay rent for space they currently cannot use because of social gathering restrictions that are being enforced due to COVID-19. Schoch says the center is not ruling out reopening their doors in the future but at a different location.
Joe Schoch: We certainly love Ann Arbor, but the fact of the matter is that the Jim Toy Center supports all of Washtenaw County. And so, I think that this opportunity gives us a time to think of what could a new hub or seed look like outside of Ann Arbor.
Jim Toy Community Center to close office, starts GoFundMe campaign
Ann Arbor LGBTQ resource center announces new leadership, will close doors end of January
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A photo taken at Ann Arbor Pride. (Jim Toy Community Center)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Jim Toy Community Center announced Tuesday that the doors of its physical office space, located at 319 Braun Court, would close at the end of January.
The LGBTQ resource center serves Ann Arbor and other Washtenaw County communities.
It will continue operating without a physical location, it said in a release.
Outgoing JTCC president Travis Radina said that the closing of other businesses in Braun Court and the challenge of maintaining the organization’s “largely-vacant” center have lead to the closure.