Milwaukee LGBT Community Center

The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center grew out of decades of efforts to create a permanent gathering place for the city’s LGBTQ community. Between the closings of the Gay Peoples Union Farwell Center (1975-1981) and the Foundation Community Center (1987-1989,) Milwaukee experienced many years without a central home for community activities.

The idea for a new center began taking shape in the mid-1990s. Erv Uecker and Ross Walker provided a substantial financial pledge that inspired broader community support and increased the viability of a local community center.

As planning progressed, organizers considered what a community center should actually provide: how much space was needed, where it should be located, what facilities and services it should offer, and—perhaps most importantly—how it could be funded and sustained. The vision that emerged was a physical home for the community, with shared office and meeting space, a library, educational resources, and a place where LGBTQ organizations and individuals could connect.

The first proposed location was a building at 1801 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. After a fire severely damaged the property, organizers were forced to continue their search.

A new space was located at 170 S. 2nd St. in Walker’s Point. The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center opened there on November 10, 1998. Approximately 250 people enrolled as members by the time of the opening, demonstrating the strong community support for this new facility.

• Board members Denise Cawley and Margot Manassa emphasized that the Center was intended to be much more than a building. Cawley saw it as a way to strengthen Milwaukee’s LGBTQ community while giving it greater visibility and credibility within the broader city. She also recalled that many people who came out had learned about LGBTQ life primarily through bars and wanted access to a wider range of community resources.
  
• Manassa envisioned the Center as a place where newcomers could make connections and find their way into the community. Early plans included a “Welcome to Our Community” packet and a “gay Welcome Wagon.” One of the first groups launched through the Center was Rainbow Families, serving lesbian and gay parents and people interested in becoming parents.

The founders also hoped the Center would reflect the diversity within Milwaukee’s LGBTQ community. They called for outreach to communities that had sometimes been overlooked, including people of color and LGBTQ parents. Rather than prescribing everything the Center should offer, the board wanted community members and organizations to help shape the Center themselves.

That philosophy became central to the Center’s identity: it was intended to be a place where Milwaukee’s LGBTQ community could come together, build connections, and take ownership of its future.

The 170 S. 2nd St. location provided the community with a home, but it also presented challenges. The building’s layout -- as a former warehouse -- limited the center's capabilities, while promised improvements to increase accessibility and capacity never happened. While located on a bus line, the Center had limited parking options available.

By 2002, the Center’s leadership had decided that a larger and more functional space was necessary. The organization moved to 315 W. Court St., the former home of the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin (ARCW).

The new facility gave the Center substantially more room. Its main floor included a reception area, offices, a library, computer and internet access, and meeting spaces. Additional space was made available to other community organizations through subleases.

As demand increased, the Center expanded its programs and its role as a home for other LGBTQ organizations. Project Q, its youth program, became an important part of this expanding community infrastructure, providing LGBTQ youth and young adults with a place for support, social connection, and programming.

Under Executive Director Neil Albrecht, who served from 1999 until 2004, the organization experienced substantial growth. During his tenure, the Center grew from an organization with no paid staff and a $40,000 budget to one with 12 staff members and an annual budget of approximately $700,000.

However, 15,000 square feet was no longer enough for the growing center. Under the direction of Maggie Cage, the organization moved to 1110 N. Market St. within the Blatz Brewery complex in September 2010.

The Market Street years also brought significant challenges. In 2012, the Center underwent a major reorganization after the abrupt exit of Maggie Cage. About 30 members and other community stakeholders began meeting regularly to help preserve the organization. A new board was assembled, Jennifer Morales and Paul Williams became co-presidents, and Karen Gotzler stepped forward to serve as interim executive director during the reorganization.

The restructuring involved difficult financial decisions. The Center reduced its occupancy in the former Blatz boiler house from four floors to two while working to stabilize its finances and protect its programs. At the same time, the reorganized board began developing a more sustainable fundraising strategy and looking at how other urban LGBTQ centers operated.

The Center also used this period to reconsider what the community wanted from its community center. Feedback indicated a desire for more social programming alongside the Center’s established services. In response, the organization began emphasizing both community-building and direct services, partnering with other organizations on events and developing new ways for LGBTQ people and families to connect.

Its existing programs remained an important part of the Center’s work. These included Project Q for young people ages 12 to 24, mental-health services, HIV testing, support groups, and services for transgender community members. The Center’s library, curated by volunteer librarian Katie Obbink, contained nearly 2,500 LGBTQ-related books and was described at the time as having the largest LGBTQ collection in Wisconsin.

The Market Street era was a time of significant financial and organizational instability, but also significant reinvention. Members, volunteers, board leaders, staff, and supporters worked together to keep the organization operating and reconsider how it could best serve Milwaukee’s evolving LGBTQ population.

In 2019, the Center returned to 315 W. Court St., reconnecting with a building that had played an important role in its earlier growth.

The return was the result of a deliberate community planning process. In 2019, the Center’s board and leadership established a workgroup to assess the community’s vulnerabilities and needs and to gather ideas about what a future Center should provide. The workgroup surveyed hundreds of community members, nonprofit partners, businesses, and other stakeholders.

The feedback identified several priorities. The Center needed to be centrally located, accessible by public transportation, physically accessible, and highly visible within the community.

The workgroup formally announced the Center’s intention to relocate at the June 2020 Annual Meeting and continued gathering public input at a Center Move Town Hall in November.  Rather than occupying only two spaces as it had previously, the organization planned to use almost the entire building, providing substantially more room for programs, services, staff, community organizations, and gathering spaces.

The Center operated at this address from 2019 to 2026.

Following the loss of approximately $900,000 in federal funding, the Center made the difficult, but essential decision to reduce its physical footprint. In march 2026, the Center moved to its new location at 161 S. 1st St. A grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony happened on May 12, 2026.  

This was a spiritual homecoming, as the Center had returned to the neighborhood where it first opened its doors in 1998. The new location continues the Center’s longstanding mission of providing a physical home for Milwaukee’s LGBTQ community, while adapting its programs and services to changing circumstances.