Thirty years ago, Cheyenne Doroshaw had an idea, and just this past Friday her idea came to life when she opened the cities first LGBTQ+ owned and ran housing complex in Queens, New York.
Doroshaw, a trans woman, and founder and executive director of Gay and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society, or GLITS, bought the complex, which has 11 apartments spanning three floors in the Queen’s Woodhaven neighborhood.
During an open ceremony Friday, Doroshaw said, “Thirty years of a dream, of doing something like this.” She added, “But not just doing it, putting us in an area, in a location where we don’t have to run.”
The building’s basement will be converted into an educational and learning center, as she considers education to be “the key and the base to everything you need in this world.”
“This was created out of love,” she said in a Monday interview. “Each apartment will have and be — created, and painted and styled — by a designer, an interior designer. The apartments are painted by volunteers. The art and everything has been donated. The furniture was donated from Disney hotels. This is an act of love.”
Doroshaw said GLITS’ mission has always been to help people internationally, especially her own LGBTQ+ community.
“My community is being hunted all around the world,” she said. “If I’m going to have a mission and a statement, my mission has always been to change the lives of my community, to infuse and get young people to rethink what a career is, to invest in ourselves so we can see a better future.”
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