Founder Resigns from Pasadena LGBT Group, Launches Another

An openly gay pastor of Good Shepherd Church Pasadena broke away from the organization he founded that caters to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders and launched a new group Friday, November 8.

Rev. Rick Eisenlord and co-founder Paulette Hunnewell of Pasadena Pride Center resigned from their posts and launched the new San Gabriel Valley Gay and Lesbian Center.

“This new Gay and Lesbian Center will be values driven,” Eisenlord said. “Specifically those values will include our work in pursuit of providing much needed support and safety-net services to the LGBTQ community.”

Eisenlord said he resigned from Pasadena Pride Center because its board members “did not share [his] vision.”

“It is precisely these values of serving the community with no prospect of being paid, putting the needs of others before our own and doing it in humility that I find missing in the Pasadena Pride Center,” he said.

“The PPC Board did not share my vision, hence my resignation from the Board to launch a new gay and lesbian center that has these values at its core,” he added.

Pasadena Pride Center will continue its operations although its website (www.pasadenapridecenter.org) was shutdown because Eisenlord owns its domain, Pride Center interim President Liz Schiller told the Pasadena Star-News.

Eisenlord said the first project for the SGV Gay and Lesbian Center will be the coordination of an all-volunteer outreach to the HIV homeless population through the City of Pasadena Health Department’s HIV Food Bank.

He is hopeful that many volunteers will attend SGV Gay and Lesbian Center’s first meeting on Saturday, November 16 at 1:00 p.m.

“It is my prayer that the good people of the San Gabriel Valley will step up to the plate and join us in this exciting and challenging endeavor,” Eisenlord said.

The other proposed programs of SGV Gay and Lesbian Center include feeding programs, youth programs, after school tutoring for LGBT youth, roommate and housing referrals, HIV testing, transgender support groups, LGBT cultural education and programs/support services directed to minority LGBT communities, including African American, Latino and Asian populations.

The board members of Pasadena Pride Center said they were happy that the LGBT community in San Gabriel Valley has another resource group to turn to, the Star-News reported.