A Disjointed Family

The building: It comes up again and again in conversations with people associated with Cornerstone, and never in a positive light. The expenses associated with the Red River building were "substantial," Chapple says, and Cornerstone's lease mandated that the organization pay property taxes, insurance, and maintenance of the building. "The air conditioner went out I think three times in '98. We had to pay for that. We had vandalism, we had to pay for that. ... And that was okay if more people I guess were using it," Chapple acknowledges.

Eventually, various groups using the facility begged off the $25 room use fee, which remains a sore point for Sandy Bartlett. "I guess if I am irked by any single aspect, it is the poverty mentality of the gay community and especially of gay community organizations. We envisioned everyone who used Cornerstone's space as helping support it. ... And yet with very few exceptions, people begged poverty; we don't have that, we can't afford that; our members are too poor. I'm sorry, I saw the Jeep Cherokee as y'all drove up. But there is among oppressed people in general -- whether gay or minority, whatever -- there is a serious poverty mentality. And I view this as one of the graver pathologies in gay community culture, given the fact that we tend to do better financially than most people in America. We are not poor, and yet no one with few exceptions actually wanted to pay for the use of the space."

Now that Cornerstone is actually closed, Bartlett and others are already considering how it might all be done over again. "I would take a cheap storefront with a very visible location, say South Congress, carve out a little niche that is secure for an office, and for the rest, let the community slap whatever paint around it they want to and have at it. There would be no additional space, not for OutYouth, not for other organizations, to exist permanently. They would be encouraged to come and meet there, come do their projects there, whatever, but the idea of trying to foster decent permanent space for other organizations, which was a linchpin of Cornerstone's raison d'être, didn't work." Adds Chapple: "This was a very expensive operation to run, and that was not necessary."

In January, former board member Donnie Young sent out a press release announcing that the dissolution of a community center for Austin's gay and lesbian population was not absolute. Young is the founder of Austin Gay and Lesbian Community Services, a "virtual" community center that can be accessed at http://www.cornerstonecenter.org, where listings of events and information about gay and lesbian organizations and gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses can be found.

The virtual aspect of the service may help answer what is now becoming an age-old question: What does Austin's gay and lesbian community want? "I think that's maybe where we should start out and get a gauge to see what we need beyond that," Chapple says.