The celebration this evening over opening the new El Paso GLBTQ Center downtown will be tempered somewhat by the knowledge that many people hold extreme, and sometimes violent, prejudices.

That point was made with force Monday, when two assaults took place Downtown, including one assault in the lobby of the center, created to serve the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (GLBTQ) communities in El Paso.

"That's one of the things we're here to combat," said Charles Sloane, director of the center, who was kicked and hit in the head in Monday's assault, which he said would not deter him. "We're going to continue to go to the community and bring this up.

"Imagine if the adults are doing this what's going on in the schools. Nationwide, more than 50 percent of students (who identify as gay) say they’ve been assaulted."

Sloane said the attackers used the term "faggot," and that such occurrences were fairly well known within the gay community, but not always well-reported. He gave an example -- a woman who called him and said she was beat up outside a club on Mesa Street about a month ago.

"She is a lesbian. She won't come forward because her family doesn’t know," Sloane said. "We've gotten three reports of assaults in the last two months, and in every single one they would not report anything to the police department."

Police spokesman Chris Mears said that while the police department receives very few complaints of assault due to sexual orientation, "the department understands that there may be several factors that discourage people who practice an alternative lifestyle reporting to the police. But we're going to do everything we can to keep that information confidential."

He said the police cannot do anything to prevent such incidents if they are not reported: "I would hope the people in the gay community have the confidence to report those incidents to the police. It is imperative people who are victims of any hate crime report it to the police because without knowledge of it occurring it is difficult to prevent future incidents."

Sloane said part of the issue is a long-term struggle to convince communities to show love instead of anger -- love for oneself, love for one's children, love for fellow residents of El Paso.

"I hope in time people will slowly but surely be more accepting here in El Paso. The younger people already are more accepting," he said.

Sloane said he wanted the opening of the center to be marked by a positive outlook, and not defined by the single act of violence that took place Monday.

The opening is at 7:30 p.m. this evening at 311 E. Mills.

The center's opening, and several other events recently, mark an emergence of sorts for the gay community in El Paso.

The Gay Pride Festival in June was the largest ever in El Paso, and drew people from all over the Southwest. In addition to the traditional gay center of activity along Ochoa Street, where the Old Plantation has held court for generations, a new location -- dubbed "Pride Square" -- has grown on the block of Stanton Street between Franklin and Missouri.

Pifas Silva, communications manager for the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau, helped plan the Gay Pride Festival and is active in various efforts on behalf of the gay community.

"Having been born and raised here in El Paso, and growing up here and attending some of the clubs and the social circles, I've seen a huge increase in GLBT communities and committees coming together," he said.

He mentioned the Alliance Fund, a committee on which he sits, as one example. Another example, he said, is a recent effort to start a UTEP GLBT alumni group, and in general, "in the past year I've seen a huge increase in gay and lesbian organizations springing up and the community coming together to support them."

"Twenty years ago I would never have fathomed that for my community," he said. "It could be a good thing and a bad thing. We're becoming more visible so there is the possibility of harm but there's also the impression we are growing as a group and there's nothing to fear if we combine our resources and our strength."

Silva attributed part of the movement to the growth of the city, and the maturing of new community leaders.

"I'm also seeing a lot of new faces emerging in the community, saying 'I'm coming from San Antonio or another town and the gay community is more vocal there, and El Paso needs that,' " Silva said.

Sloane fits that description. He grew up in Las Vegas, he said, and has been in El Paso almost a year and a half.

"I'm married, I have a husband here, and we both have a daughter," he said. "We are raising our child here in El Paso, Texas. We plan on going nowhere. I love El Paso."