The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District distributed its first arts and small business grants Sunday, November 7, outside the shuttered Cafe Flore. Healing Cuts received $30,000 and the Queer Cultural Center received $20,000. QCC will further distribute the monies as micro-grants to individual LGBTQ artists. Grant recipients and supporters of the cultural district were present at the check distribution. According to a news release, the cultural district received the grant funds from the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development. Ismael de Luna, a gay Latinx man, plans to expand his Healing Cuts barbershop business and will use the grant money to create a new parklet and purchase equipment, including barber chairs. He will also use $5,000 to provide 125 free haircuts to people with low incomes who are clients of Shanti Project, which provides services to those living with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses.
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