From the DataCenter's Youth Strategy Project, Spring/Summer 2002:

Challenging Institutional Homophobia, Transphobia and Gentrification

Christopher Street Pier in the West Village has been a hang-out for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, Two-Spirit, transgender and questioning (LGBTSTQ) community in New York City since the 1960s. However, transgender people and youth are regularly arrested and harassed by the police. Surveillance cameras are being used. The pier has been one of the only places in New York City where homeless queer youth and queer youth of color could gather, build communities and access services.

This same area is also being targeted for gentrification and the queer community is being "fenced out." FIERCE, an LGBTSTQ youth organization in New York City working for racial and economic justice, learned that the police crackdown had been ordered by groups interested in redeveloping the area, including Hudson River Park Trust, West Village Community Board and the West Village Tenants Association.

To make people aware about the gentrification happening in Christopher Street Pier, FIERCE produced a documentary on displacement, particularly of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth in the community.

The DataCenter assisted FIERCE in providing a profile of who's involved in redevelopment and neighborhood statistics.

For further information contact FIERCE at fierceyouthnyc@aol.com.