Locals hope to open Suffolk LGBT center
SUFFOLK — Growing up in Suffolk, Colby Miller didn’t know many people who openly identified as LGBT.
“It’s something that’s more hidden in this area,” said Miller, now 29. “As you get older you find out, ‘oh, that person was in the closet too.’
“Why couldn’t we be out and accepting ourselves?”
Miller didn’t fully come out as gay until he moved to Los Angeles several years ago, he said. There he took advantage of services, such as free HIV testing, at an LGBT center.
After moving back to Hampton Roads at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, Miller is now working to create such a place in his own hometown.
The L.A. center was “eye opening,” he said. “It was beneficial to me. I thought Suffolk deserved something like that.”
He envisions a place where after school, “students could stop in and be able to hang out with people that are going through the same kind of things they’re going through,” he said. “Maybe (they’re) being bullied for being different, maybe being harassed and they don’t have someone they can talk to. We would be kind of a safe place for them to be around people just like them.”
The center would serve primarily Western Tidewater, helping fill a gap that exists there for LGBT-related services and entertainment, he said.
He noted that people in the western, more rural parts of the region sometimes have to drive over an hour if they want to go to, say, the LGBT Life Center in Norfolk.
“I wanted to be able to offer those a little closer to home,” Miller said, adding he sees it as a complement to existing centers, rather than competition.
The eventual goal would be to offer not just free HIV testing — “it’s important for everyone to know their status,” Miller said — but also services such as counseling, support groups and primary care.
The idea is still in its infancy, though.
Miller said he’s been working
climate-damaging carbon dioxide to cut than any other country except China.
A more telling measure of progress in various countries is to look at what percentage of emissions a country has cut. Since 2005, the United States hasn’t been in the top 10 in percentage of greenhouse gas emission reductions.
More than 180 nations have ratified the accord, which aims to keep the increase in average temperatures worldwide “well below” 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit and ideally no more than 2.7 F, compared with pre-industrial levels. Scientists say that any rise beyond 3.6 could have a devastating impact on large parts of the world, raising sea levels, stoking tropical storms and worsening droughts and floods.
The G-20, which includes the U.S., India, China, the U.K., France, Germany, Japan and others, also stressed the importance of global access to COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and tests.
“We will spare no effort to ensure their affordable and equitable access for all people, consistent with members’ commitments to incentivize innovation,” the final statement said.
The G-20 expressed support for efforts like COVAX, an international initiative to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to countries worldwide. The U.S., however, has declined to join under Trump.
The G-20 statement did not directly address an urgent appeal by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said $28 billion in additional investment is needed for mass manufacturing, procurement and delivery of new COVID-19 vaccines around the world, including $4 billion immediately.
There is also concern that countries such as Britain, the U.S., France and Germany have directly negotiated deals with pharmaceutical companies, meaning that the vast majority of the world’s vaccine supply next year is already reserved.