Staten Island's LGBT center an oasis of hope for victim of vicious hate
Published: Sunday, October 10, 2010, 8:27 AM
Deborah E. Young
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/10/staten_islands_lgbt_center_an.htmlSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Every day, when she walks out the door of her Mariners
Harbor home, Sarina Bello lifts her head, straightens her back, and readies herself to walk with strength past the insults she knows she will hear -- words like "sissy," "hooker" "freak" and worse -- muttered under breath by people she doesn't even know.
"There's not a day that goes by when nobody says nothing," said the 22-year-old, dressed in a baby pink striped shirt with lace at the collar, her guard let down in a cozy room in the St. George LGBT Center. "I've gotten used to their ignorance. It's more in Staten Island; in the city I don't get bothered as much."
