Ohio Valley Pride Opens Center for Region’s LGBTQ Community in Downtown Wheeling

LGBTQ community has a place to reach out

WHEELING -- A home for the Ohio Valley's LGBTQ community officially opened its doors in downtown Wheeling.

Ohio Valley Pride held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday morning at its newly-opened community center, 1320 Market St., which the non-profit plans to use to reach out to the community.

"Anyone is welcome to come and talk to us," organization co-founder Norman Galownia said. "It's for everybody to come in here. We just want to reach out."

The community center occupies 2,500 square feet at its Market Street location and is designed to be a place for connecting with others, attending the center's various events or just hanging out, Ohio Valley Pride President Jack Carbasho said.

"I want to be able to help everybody," Carbasho said. "You don't have to be LGBT to come here. It's a great place to do different events."

The event is the first physical space for the non-profit, he said, which was founded in January 2017 and organizes the Ohio Valley Pride Festival in May. According to the mission statement on its website, the organization aims to educate and protect LGBTQ people while fostering a more positive, safe and inclusive community.

"Ohio Valley Pride itself has been a dream for me," Carbasho said. "It's been something I've wanted to do for many years, probably 10 years."

For now, the center will be open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, offering events like a movie and game night, an open mic night, shows and parties, Vice President Jeff Foster said, adding that Carbasho will serve as a DJ.

The center's hours are noon to 8 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and noon to 10 p.m. on Fridays, Foster said.

Co-founders Carbasho, Galownia and Foster held the event Friday, attended by Mayor Glenn Elliott and representatives of the Wheeling Greater Area Chamber of Commerce and WesBanco.

"It's adding to the richness of what we offer in downtown Wheeling with an office like this here," Elliott said. "It's nice to see it taking place in an old historic building, which like a lot of buildings just need some more attention. I walked by this building for years with it being empty."

The organization purchased the space in October 2017 and spent the past year or so preparing it for the community center, Carbasho said.

"It was my dream, Jeff's Dream and Jack's Dream that we always wanted to do this to reach out to people," Galownia said.

Carbasho added that anyone interested in talking with him or others can go to ohiovalleypride.org or call the center at 304-905-9488.

This year's Ohio Valley Pride Festival is set for noon to midnight on May 11 at Heritage Port.