Rose Garden Resident

Cover Story

Photograph reproduced with permission of Ted Sahl Archives, Special Collections, San Jose State University

Early Gatherings: Volunteers who worked on refurbishing a storefront for the first Billy DeFrank Center at 86 Keyes St. celebrated the grand opening in 1981.

DeFrank center celebrates 25 years of service to the LGBT community

Center's anniversary to be marked by gala

By Mary Gottschalk

In its quarter-century of existence, the Billy DeFrank Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center has evolved from near invisibility to high visibility, going from a tiny, two-room storefront location to a 10,000-square-foot, renovated building at 938 The Alameda.

The DeFrank grew out of a desire by members of the LGBT community for a place of their own.

"There weren't any places to meet and gather with large groups of people other than the bars," says Liz Burkhouse, one of the DeFrank founders.

In 1981, through word of mouth, more than 200 people showed up for the initial meeting at the Unitarian Church Hall in downtown San Jose. By evening's end, they had elected an interim board of directors and formed committees.

Equality was important from the first, Burkhouse says, so the initial board had an equal number of men and women.

The naming of the center was a fundraising affair, where names were suggested and voting was in the form of donations.

Billy DeFrank won.

DeFrank was the stage name of William Price, a female impersonator who was also a tireless ambassador and fundraiser for the gay community. He died in 1980 of an apparent heart attack following a performance and was nominated by his lover and friends.

The first locale for the DeFrank was at 86 Keyes St. in what had been a television repair store.

"The location on Keyes was a seedy storefront with a bar on one side and a used car lot on the other," Burkhouse recalls. "You were afraid to go in. The first time I visited, I had to go around the block three to five times because the neighborhood was creepy."

Once she overcame her fears, Burkhouse did park and go in.

"The thing I most remember is how home-like it felt. We tried to make it welcoming so when people came there, they could put off their feelings of being oppressed. When you walked through the door, it didn't matter. Everyone knew you were who you were, and it was like coming home," she says.

Initially the center operated a switchboard, a hotline and counseling services.

Additionally, Burkhouse says both she and the late Neil Christie worked to make sure "there was always a social component, not just workshops and STD testing, and later AIDS groups. It was more a place where you could come for a barbecue and meet people under natural circumstances."

Burkhouse believes relationships that begin away from a bar atmosphere are usually healthier. The DeFrank offered the first alternative to the bars that were the traditional gathering places for the gay community.

Prior to the establishment of the center, there were an estimated 27 bars in the South Bay friendly to gay or lesbian clientele. Today, there are around five.

In the beginning, the DeFrank was an all-volunteer operation.

Burkhouse was the first paid executive director, named in 1982. Still attending college, she stepped down from her position after six months but continued as an active volunteer for 18 years.

Today, the center continues to offer a switchboard, hotline, counseling and more, including some 30 support groups in seven areas of interest. There are women's, men's, sports, bisexual, transgender and youth groups, as well as general interest ones focusing on families, 20-somethings, Latinos and activities such as pageants.

Additionally, there are a variety of regular workshops, including ones in dance, yoga, stress management and home-buying.

Social activities also continue to be an important component, ranging from bingo to film nights to kayaking.

One of the most popular activities is the weekly vintage taste luncheon. Held on Wednesdays, the free lunches are open to anyone 50 and older. Each week around 40 attend.

Norman Costa, a longtime DeFrank member and volunteer, is one of the regulars.

"I go for the company," Costa says. "It keeps me in touch with friends I might not normally see on a weekly basis. I know I'll see them on Wednesdays."

Costa, who was volunteer of the year in 2000, had to stop volunteering after lung surgery.

He laments the fact the center's hours have changed, so it doesn't open until 3 p.m. on weekdays, except for Wednesdays.

On the other hand, Costa is pleased at the growth of different groups and activities at the center.

"It's a place to get together to do things of mutual interest," he says. "It's a safe place to be, not like being in a bar drinking."

The DeFrank now has a staff of five full-time employees, two part-time and volunteers who serve around 400 people each week. Each year they serve more than 21,000 different people.

From its original location on Keyes, the DeFrank moved to Park Avenue, where it was located from 1985 to 1990 before moving to Stockton Avenue.

City Councilman Ken Yeager, an active member of the DeFrank since it was on Keyes, describes the moves and growth as an evolution.

"I think each time the DeFrank has moved and found a new home, it's been a whole new era," Yeager says. "When it was on Keyes, it was all very secretive. The era now is one of integration and a center where straight people can feel comfortable going. It is a neighborhood center, as well as a gay and lesbian center."

Ted Sahl has watched the evolution of the DeFrank from its inception.

A freelance photojournalist who focuses on three areas--"freedom of choice, social justice and no war," Sahl says his involvement with the local gay and lesbian community came about "through a combination of curiosity and accident."

Already covering the anti-nuclear protest movement, Sahl decided to attend a gay pride rally in St. James Park in 1978.

Sahl, who describes himself as "very straight," admits he was somewhat nervous and unsure of his reception.

It was more cordial than he expected, and Sahl found himself empathetic toward the community.

"I had no idea there was a gay newspaper or gays in San Jose. They were in the closet, poor souls," he says.

"As a Jew from Boston, Mass., I know about discrimination.

"When I first got in touch with the gay community, I recognized a deep sense of richness of the human spirit. That, in my mind, had to be supported, so I went into it."

Sahl photographed events, demonstrations and get-togethers for local gay newspapers.

Sensitive to privacy issues, Sahl asked before he shot and found over time more people willing to be photographed than ones shying away from his lens.

The result was a front-row seat at the evolution of the gay community in the South Bay, including all the phases of the DeFrank Center.

Sahl was accepted by the community, which inducted him into the Santa Clara County Gay Hall of Fame in 1988. In 1997, Sahl was honored as the first straight president of the Gay Pride Celebration Committee. Sahl used his definitive photographs and insight in his book From Closet to Community: A Quest for Gay & Lesbian Liberation in San Jose & Santa Clara County, published in 2002. He's now at work on a sequel he's titled Out in the Community: The Second Generation.

Also in 2002, Sahl donated his archives to San Jose State University's Special Collections.

Sahl's work served as one of the resources former interim director Clark Williams is using for a DeFrank history presentation at the DeFrank's 25th anniversary gala April 29.

"It's been fascinating," Williams says of his research. "There's a need to pass our history on to another generation, to keep it going."

Williams, who served an interim director of the DeFrank for four months until the appointment of Aejaie Sellers in late February, has been contacting past directors and board members.

One of the most striking changes Williams says he's found in the past 25 years is in the area of communications.

"For the first 15 years of the organization, the DeFrank produced a newsletter providing news and information to the LGBT community that was oftentimes the only way many gays and lesbians knew there was a large community here. Now we take the Internet for granted," Williams says.

As the DeFrank looks toward the next quarter-century, new executive director Sellers says she sees "a tremendous amount of potential."

She'd like to see the center take a stronger leadership and advocacy role in the community at large.

"As we do that and move into that role, we become more joined with the San Jose community as a whole and understand that to be a player at the table, we have to be full participants at the table," Sellers says.

"The LGBT community along with the DeFrank Center have plenty of energy, ideas and support to be a major player at that table in this community."