RACINE - A Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender center is set to open next year, but not with the support of all of the aldermen.

At Tuesday's City Council meeting four of the 13 aldermen present that night voted against allowing a conditional use permit for the center.

Meeting minutes show four aldermen - Jim Kaplan, Q.A. Shakoor II, Michael Shields and Ron Hart - voted against the permit.

Aldermen Robert Anderson and Ray DeHahn were excused from the meeting.

The council vote approving the conditional use permit allows Bruce Joffe to use the building, 1456 Junction Ave., for the LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin. Joffe serves as the nonprofit organization's executive director and bought the roughly 1,725-square-foot building.

"We have not gotten a single cent from the city," Joffe said.

The center will offer films, speakers, reading groups, STD and HIV testing and counseling, art shows and domestic violence workshops, Joffe said.

Kaplan said he received 12 calls before the meeting from people asking him to vote against the permit for the center. All but two of them were from Racine and no one called asking him to support the center, he said.

"We vote according to feedback," he said. "I couldn't vote for it. I don't approve of it for personal reasons."

He tried to send the proposed permit back to the City Plan Commission for more discussion, but his attempt failed.

When the city considered adding a manger scene to Monument Square two years ago he said it took months of discussion for it to be approved. He wanted similar discussion for the LGBT center.

He also does not believe that any community center fits with the city's plans for an uptown artist relocation program, he said.

Mayor Gary Becker disagreed.

"People are going to grasp at straws," Becker said. "The more activity you can bring to an area the more vibrant, the safer it becomes."

Also, a no vote would have been discrimination, Becker said.

Legally we can't say no, and two, there is absolutely no reason we would want to say no in my humble opinion," Becker said.

Alderman Terry McCarthy agreed that a no vote would have been the wrong decision for the city.

He initially voted for the permit to go back to committee for more public notice. But after the council voted that down, he voted to allow the permit.

"The real issue was zoning," McCarthy said. "The laws of the state and the country are that anybody that comes in with a request gets treated equally."

Alderman Shields also voted for it to go back to committee, but then voted against the permit altogether.

Shields said it was "disrespectful" not to give people a chance to ask more questions and better understand the permit.

His vote had nothing to do with the plans for the LGBT center, he said.

"I don't discriminate against anybody," Shields said. "You could be polka dotted."

But Wednesday he would not say whether he supported the center.

"I will not make a judgment statement on anything until I can get more facts," Shields said.

Alderman Shakoor also said he would have liked more discussion on it.

"I think more of the people need to weigh in on it," he said.

Alderman Hart was not available for comment.

To learn more about the center go to: http://www.lgbtsewisc.org/