LGBT Life Center

02/27/2026

Black History Month Staff Spotlight, Stacie Walls, CEO

What does Black History Month mean to you?
It’s my responsibility to learn — and then teach.

Who is your favorite Black author or book?
📚 While I’m not a huge poetry reader, the work of Audre Lorde speaks to me — especially the reminder: “You are the one that you are looking for.”

What is your favorite Black-owned local business?
🥢 Ricky's Rolls

What Black historical figure has influenced you most?
The strength and leadership of Black women — especially Marsha P. Johnson. To be a Black trans woman in the 1960s, living boldly and organizing in ways most people cannot even imagine — her strength helped build a movement.

What’s a Black-led film, show, or documentary you’d recommend?
🎬 13th
🎥 The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
📺 Pose

What’s something about Black culture that brings you joy?
Witnessing q***r Black joy. 🖤✨

02/27/2026

Black History Month Staff Spotlight, Gina Montanarelli, Sr. Data Analyst.

What does Black History Month mean to you?
In short, it’s honoring the rich history of the contributions Black folks have made to the foundations of our country — and recognizing how Black culture continues to influence and enhance our society every day.

What is your favorite Black-owned local business?
🍽️ Desmond’s Island Soul Grill — A Guyanese-influenced vegan Caribbean restaurant that introduced me to dishes I never would have known about before, like callaloo.

Jikoni Cafe within House of Consciousness — A spiritual vegan café inside a bookstore filled with Afro-centric art, books, and beauty products.

Less Than — A zero-waste refill shop improving our community and protecting our planet.

Ceremony — A nonalcoholic bottle shop also working to build healthier community spaces.

What’s a Black-led film, show, or documentary you’d recommend?
🎬 The Hair Tales — So much of Black women’s history and current experiences are reflected in their hairstyles. The series celebrates shared aspects of culture, identity, and beauty.

What’s something about Black culture that brings you joy?
🎶 Music. Rock, blues, hip-hop, rap, soul, reggae, even country music are rooted in or directly influenced by Black culture and history.

02/27/2026

Black History Month Staff Spotlight, Garian Bridges, Program Support Specialist

What does Black History Month mean to you?
Black History Month means shining a light on strong, impactful individuals whose contributions are too often overlooked or minimized.

Who is your favorite Black author or book?
📚 Beloved by Toni Morrison

What is your favorite Black-owned local business?
🍽️ MP's Jamaican Restaurant

What Black historical figure has influenced you most?
🔬 Alice Ball — She developed the first effective injectable treatment for leprosy at just 23 years old.

What’s a Black-led film, show, or documentary you’d recommend?
🎬 Sinners

What’s a piece of Black history you wish more people knew?
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932–1972).

What’s something about Black culture that brings you joy?
Everything! 🖤

02/26/2026

🔥 60 never looked so good.

Happy Birthday to Firedaddy Ken—our favorite firefighter, fundraiser, and community champion.

From the firehouse to the boardroom, Ken has always shown up for Hampton Roads with heart and hustle. We’re grateful for the countless ways he gives back, and we’re lucky to have him in our corner.

Drop some birthday love below 👇🔥

02/26/2026

Black History Month Staff Spotlight, Hudson Heinrich, Senior Housing Specialist.

What does Black History Month mean to you?
To me, Black History Month has always been about celebrating black voices--all the history and culture that isn't taught in school, isn't a required part of the curriculum, is seen as a non-essential part of educating our youth; despite the fact that the foundation of this country cannot be separated from Black History.

📚 Who is your favorite Black author or book?
Shel Silverstein's, "The Giving Tree"

🏢 What is your favorite Black-owned local business?
E. Palmer's Supermarket and Soulfood Kitchen
Locally-owned businesses are the future for keeping wealth in the Hampton Roads area--instead of keeping the wealth in the pockets of executives and national chains.

✊🏾 What Black historical figure has influenced you most?
Marsha "Pay it no mind" Johnson, may she rest in power

🎬 What’s a Black-led film, show, or documentary you’d recommend?
For fans of the ooky-spooky, I recommend Lovecraft County

🏛 What’s a piece of Black history you wish more people knew?
Free school breakfast program came into being thanks to the Black Panther Party in 1969. The program was so successful, by 1975 the federal gov't was forced to expand federal school meal programs.

🤎 What’s something about Black culture that brings you joy?
Music, rhythm, art-- the abundance of joy present in black art, especially when those in power made every effort to strip that joy away.

02/26/2026

Black History Month Staff Spotlight, Rosalind Jones, Senior Housing Case Manager.

What does Black History Month mean to you?
Black History Month, to me, is a moment in the year when the spotlight widens. It’s a time when stories that shaped the world, often quietly, often against resistance, get the space and attention they’ve always deserved. It’s not just a retrospective; it’s a reminder that Black history is inseparable from American history, scientific history, artistic history, and cultural history. A celebration of achievement.
It honors the brilliance, creativity, and resilience of Black individuals whose contributions have transformed everything from music and literature to medicine, technology, and civil rights.

Black history is a reminder of the inventions that people of color have invented and it's a recognition of how we must celebrate yearly. As a black person growing up in the south, I had to learn a limited amount of black history in public school, an encyclopedia and the history books.

Sadly, in today’s world a lot of black history articles such as museums, inventions, pictures, and statues are being taken down by the new administrations. I think it is so sad that it is happening.

As a black person, we only have one month of history to celebrate and that’s the month of February. As a black minority person living in the United States of America, I don't even know my family background and where I came from because of the lack of tools and materials that were not privy to us to trace our history because of limited resources.

Black history month for me is also a celebration of the different tribes of my ancestors.

📚 Who is your favorite Black author or book?
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings — Maya Angelou
The Bluest Eye — Toni Morrison

🏢 What is your favorite Black-owned local business?
The Cutlass Grill in Chesapeake, Virginia

✊🏾 What Black historical figure has influenced you most?
President Barak Obama…… OMG!!!!!!!!!!!. “ I LOVE him”
President Barack Obama has a calm, steady, and thoughtful way of speaking that makes people feel seen and respected. His communication style is often described as warm, intentional, and uplifting — the kind of leadership voice people remember. Intelligence with heart. He’s known for being incredibly intelligent, a constitutional law scholar, a powerful writer, and a deep thinker, but also able to break ideas down in a way that connects with everyday people. That combination is rare.

Harriet Tubman >>Led dozens of enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

🎬 What’s a Black-led film, show, or documentary you’d recommend?
Hidden Figures (2016)
The Best Man (1999) & The Best Man Holiday (2013)
Black Panther (2018)
Freedom Riders (2010) – PBS
The Black Godfather (2019) – Netflix
4 Little Girls (1997) – HBO

🏛 What’s a piece of Black history you wish more people knew?
“I wish more people knew how much Black people achieved during Reconstruction — how we built schools, owned land, created towns, held political office, and transformed America right after slavery ended. That history is rarely taught, but it shows the strength and brilliance we come from.”

Rosewood, FL
Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK
Eatonville, FL (Zora Neale Hurston’s hometown)
Princeville, NC (one of the first Black incorporated towns)

🤎 What’s something about Black culture that brings you joy?
Traditions
Sundy dinners
Stories
Music
Food: Collards, Fried Chicken, Sweet potato pie & Corn bread
Spirituality
Black own business thriving

02/26/2026

This week staff from LGBT Life Center visited THRIVE Peninsula to peer share about services and programs offered to our Peninsula community.

What a fantastic organization; almost one million pounds of food distributed through their market and more than 40,000 people served. We look forward to collaborating on how our organizations can best serve our neighbors on the Peninsula.

Our Pride Pantry is available to everyone, no eligibility required: https://lgbtlifecenter.org/wellness/pride-pantry/

02/26/2026

📣 “Without 340B, we would not exist.”

That’s not rhetoric. That’s reality.

Our CEO, Stacie Walls, spoke with Virginia Mercury about the essential role of the 340B Drug Pricing Program, a federal pharmacy program that allows community health organizations like LGBT Life Center to stretch limited resources and expand care by leveraging savings from bulk prescription purchases.

Because of 340B, we have an in-house partner pharmacy and reinvest savings directly into the services our community depends on: health care, housing support, prevention services, support groups, and our free Pride Pantry.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers have pushed for changes to the 340B program largely because it affects their revenue. The program requires drug companies to provide significant discounts to eligible healthcare providers, and manufacturers argue that the current structure reduces their margins. At its core, this debate reflects access to medications at affordable rates.

340B isn’t an abstract policy discussion for us. It’s what makes care possible.

national solutions to the problem have yet to materialize, and some Virginia state lawmakers who are tired of waiting are taking matters into their own hands during this year’s legislative session.

02/25/2026

We’re excited to welcome Aeron to LGBT Life Center as our newest Housing Stabilization Specialist.

Aeron brings a background in human development, housing navigation, and military service, along with a deep commitment to supporting people in building stability and maintaining housing. His work centers on helping clients navigate program expectations, uphold lease agreements, and access coordinated, consistent care.

“I’ve always wanted to work directly with my community and give back in meaningful ways.”

We’re glad you’re here, Aeron 💙

02/25/2026

✨ Black History Month Staff Spotlight, Meley Tesfamariam, Program & Diversion Specialist.

Black history is layered, powerful, and deeply personal. In this spotlight, Meley is sharing reflections on identity, culture, inspiration, and joy.

🖤 What does Black History Month mean to you?
Reminding folks that American history is not much without Black history.
Not just making space at the table for Black people, but allowing us to make our own table.
Celebrating Black people and our accomplishments through history, but also remembering our systemic struggles so as to not repeat history.

📚 Who is your favorite Black author or book?
Bell Hooks or Zora Neale Hurston.

🏢 What is your favorite Black-owned local business?
CLTR VGN JNT (before they closed down) and Mesob Cafe.

✊🏾 What Black historical figure has influenced you most?
Angela Davis, Fred Hampton, Marsha P. Johnson, and so much more.

🎬 What’s a Black-led film, show, or documentary you’d recommend?
Movies: American Fiction. Sinners. Moonlight.
Shows: Abbott Elementary. Insecure.

🏛 What’s a piece of Black history you wish more people knew?
Seneca Village, New York: This used to be a thriving, autonomous, Black community founded by freed African Americans. At the time, the community was also welcomed to immigrants from Irish, Italian, etc. backgrounds. By the mid 1800s, residents were eventually forced to leave and the land was seized and destroyed to create what is now known as Central Park.

🤎 What’s something about Black culture that brings you joy?
How community oriented it is, and oftentimes rejects the notion of individualism 🤎

02/25/2026

✨ Today, our Black History Month Staff Spotlight is O'mar White, our Client Services Program Manager.

Proud to spotlight Superior Concierge Services, a locally rooted, Black-owned transportation company serving the Hampton Roads community with professionalism, class, and care.

From proms and weddings to corporate events and special nights out, they provide reliable, luxury transportation with true Southern hospitality.

Even more, Superior Concierge Services is committed to creating a welcoming and respectful experience for everyone, including our LGBTQ+ community. Safe, inclusive, and community-focused — exactly what we love to support.

When you ride, you’re not just booking transportation, you’re supporting local Black excellence. ✊🏾🏳️‍🌈



🖤 What does Black history mean to you?
Black history is resilience — and for me, it looks like my mother.

A Black Queen who carried the weight of single parenting with strength, grace, and determination. It wasn’t easy. There were sacrifices I didn’t understand at the time, long days and even longer nights. But she worked hard to give her children the best the world had to offer.

Her resilience built the foundation I stand on today. Her strength shaped the father I am.
When I think about Black History Month, I don’t just think about names in textbooks — I think about her. Because Black history lives in women like my mother every single day.

🎬 Black-Led Film Recommendation
If I had to recommend a Black-led film, it’s The Color Purple — no question.

I was raised on this movie. The strength, the sisterhood, the pain, the survival, the redemption — it’s more than a film, it’s a cultural experience. It taught me about resilience, about finding your voice, about healing, and about the power of Black women long before I fully understood those lessons.

The performances are unforgettable. The storytelling is raw and real. And the message? Timeless.
If you’ve never seen The Color Purple…I’m taking your Black card. 😅

But seriously, it’s a must-watch. It’s one of those films that lives in your spirit long after the credits roll.