Pride is here and we can’t wait to celebrate with you all! Queer SLO recently sat down with Gay and Lesbian Alliance of the Central Coast (GALA) Executive Director Michelle Call and Board President Rob Diaz, and got the tea on all the Pride happenings. Beyond the amazing SLO Pride events in the coming weeks, GALA has been expanding their year-round programming in exciting ways and hopes you’ll join them in helping create a more vibrant, inclusive LGBTQ+-affirming Central Coast.
Tell me a little bit about your journeys, including a few key moments that got you to the place you are today.
Rob: Key moments, huh? Well I’ve actually been out here on the Central Coast for about a year and a half. I came out from Arizona, spent two years out there with my partner, and prior to that, I’m from Sonoma County. In my professional life, I do sexual violence prevention education. I currently work for RISE, our local rape crisis center and DV Center, and I’ve been doing that work for quite a long time. In Sonoma County, I worked for the Rape Crisis Center Verity for quite a few years, did hospitality bouncing, all sorts of great things. My partner had moved out to Arizona to do their masters just as we started dating, did a year of long distance, spent two years in the desert doing high acuity mental health and suicide crisis interventions in Maricopa County in the Phoenix area.
Then I got sick of the desert. It was way too hot. Came out here, got a job at RISE, was here for about maybe a month or two, and then I was asked to join the GALA board. When Ryan Duclos stepped up to be president last year, I somehow became vice president, and this year I’m really excited to be president.
Michelle: He was drafted.
Rob: Ha! Exactly. Then I took over as youth director this year, running our Q and R groups and supporting our Trans Youth Peer Support Group as well.
Michelle: We are really glad to have Rob as our president. I just want to say he’s doing a fantastic job, and that’s really important because we have this synergy between this Executive Director position, which was new last year, and the board. I’m becoming more independent now, but I feel like without the support of the board during the last year, this would not have happened. It’s been extremely collaborative experience.
That’s amazing. Tell us a little about your journey, Michelle.
Michelle: Sure. So I moved here to the Central Coast about 20 years ago from England for the weather, and I’ve been volunteering for GALA. I’ve done other jobs, always in caring professions; the majority of my life I’ve been working with the elderly. I used to do it for Visiting Angels doing in-home care, hiring and training the caregivers and making sure everything was going smoothly. I ran about 50 to 60 caregivers and volunteered for GALA the whole time. I’m bisexual myself, although I didn’t really consider that an identity that I held because it just didn’t occur to me – I have all this privilege. I just was privileged enough never to have to consider it, which is kind of amazing all by itself. So I volunteered with GALA doing relationship negotiation and education for the polyamory groups in the BDSM community, and got more involved that way.
Once I found out that they were hiring for an Executive Director, I wasn’t even looking for a job. I just saw it on Craigslist, one of those fortuitous things, and I thought this would be a way to make my volunteer life my whole life. So I just went for it and have been doing it ever since. I also have two trans children. I have a trans nonbinary 15-year-old and a female-to-male 18-year-old that’s a child of my spouse’s from his previous marriage. So I kind of did all that work in advance and then it came back to support me.
Wow. What a great asset you must be to folks here.
Rob: Yes. Very, very lucky to have Michelle here.
So just tell us what’s new at GALA right now. I understand you were undergoing a renaming?
Michelle: Yes! We’re still working on the renaming. We have a governance committee that is working on changing the bylaws and we’re going to have a new mission statement. Everything is going to happen together, but it’s still a work in progress.
And then another exciting piece is the new groups we’ve started, like the Trans Peer Support Group and the Parent Support Group that go with it. It was actually really intentional and came out of our collaboration with Tranz Central Coast (TCC), which is really its own organization but kind of a subgroup within GALA. TCC has its own committee, its own folks, its own fundraisers, and over the past few years, they have really been that dominant advocacy voice in the area focusing on trans rights. Which just so happens by focusing on trans rights, we support the rest of our community as well. It’s all about shifting that lens, right?
Rob: So aligning with their work, we started to do more, and it really came through the work of a Cal Poly student volunteer. This student came to TCC and said, “I want to put together a youth peer support group for Trans Youth!” And although we do have Trans Tuesdays, it’s really an older crowd, so there wasn’t a space yet for Trans youth to come in and feel comfortable, really vocalizing what they go through in their experiences. So this awesome student took that on and brought on another volunteer to help facilitate, so we started it up. Initially it was going to be a once-a-month thing, but then there was so much interest that it quickly became a twice-a-month thing.
Several of those same youth are also now starting to come to our Thursday group for Q and R, so they’re coming back into the Center and utilizing it much more. It feels great to have younger energy utilizing this space, which I know was one of the biggest intents about having it here downtown in the first place when it was purchased. So we’ve had a lot of good feedback, and out of that came the Parent Support Group, right?
Michelle: Yeah, I’d started a parent support group a couple of years ago because I, as a parent of trans teens, felt like it would be a good thing to do. It was quiet for awhile and we didn’t really get a lot of membership, but when the new trans teen group started, it really galvanized the parents. We meet at the same time as the youth, so the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, and we go to Petra, have some dinner and chat while the kids are at the Center. Of course, people don’t have to have kids in the group to come, but it’s been leading to some very lively conversations, lots of sharing of information and support, and that’s been a really amazing thing.
Like Rob mentioned, the trans youth are starting to come more to the Q Youth group, so we’re really packed here on a Tuesday and Thursday. And the youth groups together are going to be working on this all gender fashion show that we’re going to be doing in June with the money from SLO Tease.
Yeah! Tell us a little bit about that – that sounds GREAT.
Michelle: So, SLO Tease Burlesque. Do you know Rick Castello? I would love to introduce you sometime. So this is a friends group that started doing these shows about 10 years ago, and they would have shows at Trinity Hall over by Highway 227. It was very amateur at the beginning and it’s gotten better and better over time, and now it’s like a highly professional show. They do them twice a year and they benefit charities – all the profits are split between GALA and RISE, which is perfect for us, right? It’s a complete body positive experience. They have men, women, nonbinary, people of all ages, all sizes. It’s a very inclusive show.
So through my relationship with Rick, that money is now coming to GALA and the intention is for a body positivity program. All of the money from the show that happened in the fall is going to this fashion show. It’s on June 15th at the Guild Hall and we’re selling tickets for just a donation. The burlesque and drag folks are going to come and teach the kids from the youth group how to walk on a catwalk. They’re going to help with costumes. We’re having a big clothing exchange so they can all find something nice to wear. There’s several local hairdressers and a makeup artist who are going to come and do hair on the day at the Guild Hall. So we’ve got a lot of community interaction, not just in putting on the show, but this is like a big thing that everybody’s feeling involved with.
Then in the fall, we’re going to continue with a messaging campaign, possibly a billboard, youtube video, that kind of thing. We really wanted to do this because our youth are at highest risk for sexual assault, domestic violence and suicidal ideation, and we know that something like this is a huge preventative factor. We’re a member of the Suicide Prevention Council as well, so we work on that side of things. But I think that these factors, preventing the isolation that leads to all this negative thought, is a really good way to help our folks feel part of a community.
Wow. That’s amazing. And so with new programs like these in the mix, thinking forward to the next three to five years, where do you see GALA headed in the future?
Rob: Ideally, especially with all the new transitions that we’ve been working on – bringing on an executive director, being more active in the community, putting on more community events, like the drag shows that we have for Pride and this Body Posi fashion show – we really just want to be the big driving force behind our community overall. We want to be able to advocate at the same level a lot of these other organizations do for other focus populations. I know there’s been a lot of talk, earlier on before we even brought on Michelle, about being able to do things in the future, like having a place where we can have LGBTQ+ focused mental health services, more advocacy services, partnering with larger organizations and being able to bring more things into our community for our community.
This also could mean more volunteer opportunities, increased utilization of the Center, and potentially in four or five years having another space where we can do things out here in the community. We know there are gaps and unfortunately we’re only able to serve so much of it. We’d even like to see maybe a GALA north or be able to support Five Cities Hope in the south a little bit better so they can provide more services down there. We just want to be bigger, better, stronger and continue to do more. That’s kind of the goal and that’s what we’re working very, very hard on right now to get to.
Michelle: Yeah, and I think eventually to do those things, it’s going to take hiring additional staff. So I hope that in three to five years, we can have at least one and possibly two additional staff. I would love to have some people to help move things forward, because I love this, but I’m just one person. And I’m trying to work on self care, haha!
SO important, yes.
Rob: And even at the board level, I mean, we’re all volunteers. Even those of us that are retired on the board are still doing so much advocacy and are active in other realms. For me, I work a full-time job for RISE, run the youth group, am board president and I’m also helping put on events and doing all these different things. It’ll be nice one day to really get some more focused support so that our individual efforts can have a greater impact.
Tell us about PRIDE! It actually kicked off with the Central Coast Pride Pageant at the end of April, right? How did that go?
Rob: It was rad, sold out. It’s actually been a really cool kickoff event for Pride season around here. We start our Pride events in April and go well into July because we don’t want to take away from the experiences of other Pride events up and down the state that a lot of our people go to already.
So, Miss Central Coast Pride. I’ll just say, seeing the difference between the queens that participated last year and this year was phenomenal. I mean, I think we kind of talked about this a little before, but everybody stepped up their game so much. I did not envy the judges – it was really, really ridiculously hard because everybody did fantastic and killed it. And it was really nice to see our queens in the spotlight and being applauded under one roof – you know, they go and do these performances, but I don’t think people really realize how much they give back to the community and how many different ways they do it.
Michelle: Yeah and just hearing from them about their experiences was so impressive. The first part of the show, they were supposed to lip sync to a song. That’s a pretty traditional drag thing, right? One of our contestants, Lotta Problems, instead of doing a song, she had her brother on, who’s a big, tall martial arts guy, and she demonstrated sexual assault awareness tips and how to get away if someone is attacking you. She made her whole thing about being safe and empowered – it was just amazing to watch.
They had a Q & A later on in the show where they had to answer questions, and so many talked about how drag has changed their lives. Hearing about how some have been rejected in their families of birth or how they haven’t felt accepted just walking down the street, but now how they feel welcomed by our community and part of a family and how much that has meant to them – it was moving.
Rob: During Santanico’s interview, she made sure to put the focus on Pride and where it comes from, and how it was a lot of queens and trans women of color who were really the leaders of those movements, being able to push it forward and really shape a lot of the drag culture as we know it today. A lot of people aren’t really aware of Pride origins because of how it’s been presented in the media and the mainstream culture, not really getting to the actual history of it. The queens were dropping some of that important knowledge and it was really cool to see.
Michelle: And we love holding events at the Guild Hall. They’re super nice and they’re nice to us and they make everything easy.
YES! We love hearing that. Okay, so spill that Pride tea.
Rob: Pink Party, Pride Drag Show, Unicorn Party, Pride in the Plaza, Pride After Party…
Michelle: Yeah, we have so much going on – slopride.com has everything listed. There’s only one thing that’s not listed there yet and that’s the Butterfly Brunch at the GALA Center on Sunday, July 7th. We wanted to make sure that there was a transgender Pride included with our celebration because sometimes Pride tends to forget transgender folks and they feel forgotten. We wanted to make sure this year that GALA doesn’t forget the transgender folks and that they feel extremely part of our Pride. So we’re working with Jessica Lynn’s Butterfly Project. It will be a nice brunch with mimosas and we’re going to have conversations with transgender people who want to share about their journey. There will be a fashion show, we’re going to play transgendered jeopardy – it’s going to be a whole event from 10am to 3pm. Still teasing out the details, but it’ll be up soon.
July 3rd is the big Pink Party at The Siren – that’s like the pre-kick off. Friday night drag shows on the 12th featuring Miss Transgender USA 2019. Saturday night is the official Central Coast Pride Party – Technicolor Unicorn Party at SLO Brew produced by SLO Queerdos. Of course, Pride in the Plaza is on Sunday in Mission Plaza, 12pm – 5:30pm, and the Pride After Party at Libertine. It’s just, wow. Wow. A lot of stuff. So yeah, if you want to see a nice clean list of everything, I just recommend going to the website.
We literally can’t wait. Okay, so you were touching on this a little bit, mentioning the Guild Hall and the other venues for Pride events, but do you have other favorite queer-owned or queer-supportive spots in the County that you could point people to? A restaurant, a winery, an event space?
Michelle: Well, definitely SLO Provisions. We all know about SLO Pro. We’ve had several wineries partner with us for Queer Night Out that have been very friendly – Fossil Wine Bar in Atascadero, Filiponi Ranch, LXV Winery. There’s a lot of those places actually that are very friendly towards our community. Mason Bar & Grill in Arroyo Grande, they’ve started a Thursday LGBTQ night.
Yeah, how cool is that?
Rob: 7 Sisters, of course. And then I’ve been working on more of a one-on-one basis with the owners of Paragon Brazilian Jujitsu. They’ve been taking a huge interest in being able to be more welcoming and affirming to the community. We hosted an all-gender self-defense workshop a few months back. They were really informative and want to make sure they’re supporting their community. They have trans members at their gym as well, so they want to make sure that everybody feels supported. Hopefully we’ll be working with them more in the future.
Michelle: And I am working with our #Out4MentalHealth intern to produce a proper resource list. It’s going to take us some time to do that, but we are working on it, to find out who are the LGBTQ friendly-services in town. Like San Luis Obispo Eye Associates contacted me because they had an issue mis-gendering someone and they wanted to do better. So they asked me to look over all their intake forms, I gave them some suggestions and now they want me to come in and train all their staff and their eye doctors. So I think that when a place is willing to do that work, it really makes them a cut above.
Rob: The Slice as well. I mean, they don’t really do much with us, but they do a lot for Five Cities Hope. They hold a lot of their fundraisers and their gatherings and stuff like that. So it’s really cool to see a business really take that on, that piece of the community out there.
And then, of course, Luna Red and Novo. Those two staples as well.
Michelle: Oh and we always want to give a shout out to United Staffing. United Staffing Associates are our biggest financial sponsor and supporter. They donate the money for half of my salary and they donate $10,000 each year to Pride, and they’re extremely LGBT-friendly folks to work for as well.
Rob: A big portion of their staff also volunteer for us in a lot of different capacities, for our Pride committees and events. Our president last year, Ryan, is an employee there and it allowed him to do a lot of things in between the margins of his day to be able to support GALA. So it’s really cool to see a business really take that on and own it, and allow some time for service to the community that maybe other businesses wouldn’t allow. Huge shout out to United Staffing.
Wow, that’s terrific. Final question – what can the LGBTQ+ community, who might be reading this, do to help you at GALA?
Rob: Come party with us. Really, it’s coming to these events, putting down just a little bit of money or coming in to volunteer. We have so many different volunteering opportunities right now. We’re looking for more facilitators for our youth groups or senior advocacy.
Michelle: Yeah, or for our Bisexual Support Group. That’s a big need we have right now is volunteer facilitators.
Rob: Yeah, we’d just love folks to come in. If someone wants to come in and spend a little time in the office during the day so we can have the Center stay open while Michelle is out more in the community, that would help out so much. If we have events where people want to bake food or bring food so we don’t have to spend money on that, then we can spend it elsewhere serving the community. Really being involved in any way, shape or form they would like, even if it’s just spreading the word, reposting our events and things going on on their social media pages. Or supporting the businesses that support us, that’s super rad as well. It doesn’t take much at any comfort level, anyone can be a part of our work and really help us out. The smallest effort can go a long way.
Michelle: And if you’re somebody who’s a wealthy person with a lot of money, if somebody wanted to donate for an additional position here at GALA, I would definitely not say no to that.
Rob: Or maybe you don’t have a lot of money. Maybe you’ve got five bucks that you just want to give that you didn’t know you had before. That’s cool too, every buck counts.
Michelle: Yes, we have a collection box right inside the Center or folks can always give online. We so appreciate any and all support from folks in our community.
Awesome. Michelle, Rob – thank you. Thank you for your time, for sharing yourselves and for giving so much to our community.
Michelle: It’s really our pleasure, and thank YOU. Cheers.
Rob: See you at Pride!
You know it.