The Los Angeles LGBT Center has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the S. Mark Taper Foundation to support the Center’s innovative Culinary Arts program, an intergenerational training program for LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness and low-income LGBTQ seniors. Taught at the Center’s commercial kitchen in the Anita May Rosenstein Campus, the 300-hour program engages students from the Center’s Senior Services programs to learn basic culinary skills alongside youth ages 18–24 in addition to professional development training for jobs beyond the kitchen. Participants finish the program by completing a 100-hour internship at local restaurants, catering companies, and other food service businesses.…
Author: Gil Diaz
A U.S. District Court judge ruled Tuesday in favor of a group of plaintiffs, among them the Los Angeles LGBT Center, to issue a nationwide preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from implementing its Executive Order that would have prohibited federal contractors and grantees from conducting workplace diversity trainings or engaging in grant‐funded work that explicitly acknowledges and confronts the existence of structural racism and sexism in our society. Judge Beth Labson Freeman issued her ruling on The Diversity Center v. Trump after hearing oral argument November 10, 2020, on the motion for a preliminary injunction sought by the Center…
It was November. New York City. I was 18 and living at Rubin Hall, one of the dorms at New York University, during my freshman year. Since we already lived in the city, my parents made me agree on a deal: to live in the dorms, I would come home every Thursday night to have dinner with them and sleep overnight. I came home as planned one Thursday after class. My parents were fighting but I wasn’t sure why. They never really fought. I remember three previous fights happening before this one in my entire life. I went into my…
I’d be less than honest if I didn’t admit that I’m glad 2020 is drawing to a close. Like many of you, no doubt, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a year as stressful as this one, both professionally and personally. At times, it has seemed almost unbearable: anxiety about Covid and its impact on my loved ones, rage about continued incidents of racist violence and brutal attacks against transgender people, grief at the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and worry about the Supreme Court and the Presidential election. On top of all that, I have had sleepless nights about…
By Gil Diaz With the holidays just around the corner, it’s a precarious time for people in recovery. “The holidays are always difficult—we see plenty of relapses taking place during the festivities,” says Kristen Anderson, the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s manager of addiction recovery services. “By January, unfortunately, we see an uptick in clients asking for help because they found themselves trying to get back on the wagon.” Anderson says the Center’s Mental Health Services receives many referrals year-round for clients who need to go through detoxification before they begin the Center’s Intensive Outpatient Program. For many years, the Center…
In honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance and in memory of those we have lost to violence against the transgender community, Los Angeles LGBT Center CEO Lorri L. Jean issued the following statement: “Today, as we mourn the lives and say the names of 37 trans and gender-nonconforming people known to have been murdered in the United States this year, the Los Angeles LGBT Center joins transgender and LGBTQ organizations across the country in denouncing the continued, pervasive, and violent attacks against the transgender community, especially against Black and Latina trans women. According to the Los Angeles County Commission on…
LGBT leaders from Wuhan, China, were due to arrive at the Los Angeles LGBT Center in February to participate in the Center’s innovative Emerging Leaders Program. Then came the coronavirus outbreak and Wuhan became the epicenter of what is now a global pandemic. The leaders of the LGBT Wuhan Center, located in the Hubei province, flew into action and gained permission from health authorities to make sure that self-quarantined people living with HIV and AIDS were able to get their medications. Each day the staff of seven and a group of approved volunteers (the Wuhan Center’s director is a graduate…
When I came to work at the Center three years ago, I had just finished working as a case manager for people on Skid Row. A highly rewarding work, it was also quite challenging working among such high-risk individuals. I saw that so many people in my own LGBTQ community were struggling and experiencing homelessness, and I wanted to do more to help uplift them. Becoming part of the Center’s Cultural Arts team has allowed me the opportunity to do exactly that. My Center job is to help create safe and brave spaces for those most vulnerable in our community. One of…
On Saturday, February 29, the Los Angeles LGBT Center will host an innovative conference known as Camp Widow to serve members of the LGBT community who have experienced the death of a spouse or partner. The highly anticipated daylong event, to be held at the Center’s Anita May Rosenstein Campus, will feature workshops, discussions, and practical tools and resources produced by nonprofit organization Soaring Spirits International. “Before marriage equality, many LGBT couples kept their relationships hidden as they endured discrimination and experienced the stigma associated with the AIDS crisis, when compared to their heterosexual counterparts,” said Los Angeles LGBT Center’s…
Nearly four years after openings its doors along Santa Monica Blvd., the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s West Hollywood location is now operating its own pharmacy on-site. Medications for shorter-term treatments, such as antibiotics, can be dispensed there and most often in seven-day increments. Clients can also pick up their refills at Center-WeHo instead of the Center’s main pharmacy located in the McDonald/Wright Building or at a retail pharmacy. “We’ve always been able to administer medication for clients, but we could never give them anything to take with them on the spot,” explained Nicole Thibeau, the Center’s director of pharmacy services.…