09/05/2026
On Thursday, September 10, the City of Austin will officially proclaim Austin Galano Club Day, recognizing 14 years of service to Austin’s LGBTQ+ community, allies and people in recovery.
To have our work recognized by our city leaders — including Mayor Kirk Watson and District 4 Council Member Jose ‘Chito’ Vela — is deeply meaningful. It says something important: the work happening within these walls matters to Austin.
Galano was built on the belief that LGBTQ+ people deserved a place where they could pursue recovery without leaving part of themselves at the door. From the beginning, members created more than meeting rooms. They created a place to belong.
Today, more than 1,000 people walk through our doors each week. They come for 12-Step meetings, to work with sponsors, to volunteer, to have a cup of coffee, connect with friends or simply be somewhere they know they are welcome.
Some arrive with decades of recovery. Others walk through the door for the first time unsure whether recovery is even possible.
They find each other here. That is Galano’s place within Austin’s larger LGBTQ+ history.
Austin’s q***r community has grown stronger and more visible over the past 14 years, supported in part by organizations and gathering places where people can come together, care for one another and build community. Galano is proud to be one of those places. Our particular contribution is recovery — providing a home where LGBTQ+ people and allies can find fellowship, support and chosen family.
Fourteen years ago, volunteers came together to build this Club. They could not have known every person who would eventually sit in these rooms, celebrate a sobriety anniversary here, find a sponsor, make a lifelong friend or discover that they were not alone.
We have built the place where those things could happen.
The City of Austin proclamation will honor that legacy. It belongs to the founders who imagined Galano, the volunteers who built it, the groups that made it their home, and every person who has helped keep its doors open for the next person who needs them.
Fourteen years later, those doors are still open. And Galano is more than a place created for Austin’s LGBTQ+ recovery community. It has become part of the fabric of Austin’s LGBTQ+ community — and part of the history we continue to write together.
Come Celebrate With Us!
Everyone is invited to join us at Austin City Hall on Thursday, September 10 at 9:00 a.m., for the official presentation of the Austin Galano Club Day proclamation. Come be part of this special recognition of the community we have built together.
Then join us Saturday, September 12, from 3:00–6:00 p.m. at Austin Galano Club for our Austin Galano Day Celebration and AIR Show Auction:
https://www.austingalano.org/post/celebrating-artists-in-recovery-austin-galano-club-day
Come enjoy original artwork created by Artists in Recovery — and take home a favorite piece through the auction.
This proclamation belongs to all of us. Come celebrate 14 years of recovery, community and belonging — and what we are building for the years ahead.
Together, we build.
