LGBT Questionnaire

Some of you might remember I sent out about 300 emails featuring the questionnaire below. Now that I'm coming back to the idea, I'd like to share some of your ideas. But first, this is the questionnaire: (also, if you're reading it for the first time and have some opinions, PLEASE email me at delawareglu@gmail.com)....

As a resident of Wilmington, it's important to me to live in a thriving city with a wide variety of fun/relaxing/elegant/outrageous things to do. Most everyone I know would agree, especially my friends in the LGBT community. Wilmington can seem “fun-challenged” at times, or maybe it’s just that the types of activities offered don’t appeal to you personally.

I'm writing you to get your opinions of what could be done differently:

A. What would you recommend changing to improve the evenings in Wilmington?
B. What events would you like to see started?
C. What sort of business/venue would you like to see opened?
D. Are there any establishments you patronize already who aren't specifically LGBT focused but could benefit from a greater sense of tolerance and support between each respective community?
E. What would it take for you, yourself to get out of your house and attend an event?


The primary purpose for the questions is based on the notion that we are a community. But what does that mean? A community is more than one person, one event, or one location. I'm incredibly envious of towns smaller than us that have Pride Parades, “gayborhoods,” rainbow flags on various houses, shops or restaurants and they understand “date night” to have a broad and inclusive meaning. It’s a chicken/egg scenario: we need a community to make these things work; we need these things to work to make us feel like a community. I’d like to see Wilmington be that kind of town, and so I am starting with something that I can impact: our sense of community.

I intend to send this message out to every person I know in hopes of getting excellent feedback from as many minds as possible. Hopefully, your feedback will help the various gay organizations in the state better understand the needs of the people. Consider this a community meeting you can attend online. The goal: To get the LGBT Community thinking about how to be a better community. Currently, there are groups and organizations struggling to kindle something, but many are hitting roadblocks. Again, it seems important to gauge what would excite you enough to show up somewhere, to sign up for something, or to attend an event knowing it's an LGBT oriented event.

If you respond, be genuine. Remember that details are key! Maybe you can suggest ways that you could offer help (advice, donations, talents). If ultimately you're not interested in evening events, are there any services or support groups geared toward the LGBT community that you would like to take advantage of?

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading and I hope to hear back from you! There is no such thing as a bad response!