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Founded in 1969, the Los Angeles LGBT Center is the largest LGBT organization in the world, dedicated to building a world where LGBT people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society. Learn more at lalgbtcenter.org.

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The Los Angeles LGBT Center is building a world where LGBT people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society.

“The Los Angeles LGBT Center keeps me together” – @gottmik

We feel love all the way from #SXSW 💜

Thank you @kwprime @trevorproject @jaidaehall & @the_symone for having this amazing conversation on the importance of protecting drag in our community.

#drag #lalgbtcenter #dragrace #queen #SXSW #sxswfilm

As a part of Ms. Versace’s iconic visit to the C

As a part of Ms. Versace’s iconic visit to the Center, she invited the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) to bring Los Angeles design talent to meet with the young people we serve in our Youth Academy. Two of those designers, Sergio Hudson and Pia Davis (No Sesso), offered their time and talents in a very special talk with our students who expressed an interest in pursuing careers in the fashion industry. Both South Carolina natives, Mr. Hudson is a decorated American designer who recently dressed Mrs. Michelle Obama, and Ms. Davis is the first Black trans designer to be awarded membership to the CFDA. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the entire CFDA family for their support of the Center’s Youth Services department. Mr. Hudson said that the experience was a reflection of his purpose as a designer. “I want to inspire people and open doors for people who look like me. We’re there, but people hold us up like unicorns on a pedestal! We’re trying to put in the work to normalize it for others.”

Happy #InternationalWomensDay! We’d like for you

Happy #InternationalWomensDay! We’d like for you to meet Bonnilee, one of the many treasured members of our Senior Services program.

At 68, Bonnilee is newly retired after having spent her career as an educational diagnostician and special education teacher who worked to ensure that students with learning disabilities received the attention and care they needed. In her spare time, she also worked as a cosmetologist and makeup artist, using the craft as an outlet to express herself after spending long days of having to hide her true self at work.

“The Center was my first stop when I moved to L.A. 15 years ago,” she says. “I came out a million times in my life, as I'm sure everybody has to. But my parents were very unhappy about it, and that made for a lot of intensities. … But I’m feeling really content now. I’m older, I’m retired, and I have nothing to hide anymore. I feel like I'm really being my most authentic self, in a way.”

Today, Bonnilee spends her days traversing Los Angeles on her bike, stopping by the Senior Center for lunch or to visit the farmer’s market. She’s also found new outlets for her creativity in programs like the Still We Rise poetry writing class for LGBTQ+ women and a new 3D hanging art class offered at the Senior Center.

“I don’t think anyone at the Center ever knew how much hiding I was doing at work and in my day-to-day life because I’m so out and proud and clear and shining,” she says. “I figured out a way to play it safe and compartmentalize. But for the people coming up behind me, don’t compartmentalize, don’t be ashamed. Be free.”

Images by @mcfaddenphoto

We recently had the pleasure of hosting @donatella

We recently had the pleasure of hosting @donatella_versace, the Chief Creative Officer of Versace, at the Center. To accompany her visit, Ms. Versace invited the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) to bring fashion students and designers to hear her speak. After Ms. Versace’s tour of the Center, she sat down for a conversation in our Renberg theatre to a very packed and very lively audience. One of the highlight’s of Ms. Versace’s visit was when we asked her about her legacy. How does she want to be remembered? “I don’t want to be remembered,” she said. “I want to live!”

In celebration of #WomensHistoryMonth, we’re tak

In celebration of #WomensHistoryMonth, we’re taking a look at some of the vibrant contributions of the #LGBTQ+ community and highlighting a few of the innumerable women whose contributions and achievements have shaped the culture of Los Angeles and helped push our society forward.

Today, we’re highlighting Hattie McDaniel, the trailblazing actress and performer who defied racial barriers and went from traveling across the United States with her brother's vaudeville troupe to becoming the first Black person to win an Academy Award for her role in “Gone With the Wind.”

Despite her success, McDaniel’s rise in Hollywood was met with intense discrimination and criticism. She was barred from attending the “Gone With the Wind” premiere—which was held at a whites-only theater in Atlanta—and at the 1939 Oscars ceremony where she had her historic win, McDaniel was forced to sit at a segregated table in the back of the room.

She also withstood condemnation throughout her career from the NAACP, who took issue with the stereotypical roles she inhabited. In response, McDaniel reportedly said, “I can be a maid for $7 a week, or I can play a maid for $700 a week.”

Meanwhile, McDaniel used her fame and influence to fight against racial discrimination off screen. When she moved to the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1941, white residents filed a lawsuit against her and other Black homeowners, aiming to oust them from their homes on the grounds that property deeds forbade sales to Black homeowners. McDaniel led the fight against the attack, and a judge eventually ruled that the racial restrictions were unconstitutional, paving the way for the end of such restrictions nationwide (and leading to the Fair Housing Act).

McDaniel’s home has been preserved as a historic monument, and those in Los Angeles can still visit the site to this day at W 22nd St. and S Harvard Blvd. (Stay tuned for more updates like this throughout the month!)

Image Credit: Criterion

Today marks the beginning of #WomensHistoryMonth—a celebration that would not be anywhere near as vibrant without the contributions of the #LGBTQ+ community. For years, the Center is proud to host the #OutForSafeSchools curriculum and lesson plans, a partnership with @OneArchives and UCLA to teach LGBTQ+ history to our students.

One of our lesson plans is about The Daughters of Bilitis (DOB)—named after the lesbian poetry collection “The Songs of Bilitis.” DOB is believed to be the first lesbian rights group in the United States. Founded in San Francisco in 1955 by a diverse group of women (and later carried on by the couple Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon), DOB originated as a social club but quickly changed its focus to education and advocacy. Daring to embrace their sexuality in a time of relentless persecution and opposition, DOB brought women together to fight for acceptance in a culture that deemed homosexuality as deviant and abnormal.

In 1956, the group began publishing The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine in the country. Aiming to provide an outlet for voices that had long been silenced, The Ladder included news, poetry, short stories, and essays relating to the lesbian experience, as well as updates on DOB meetings and activities.

The Ladder encouraged readers to “come out of hiding,” offering employment advice and distributing a pamphlet titled “Your Legal Rights.” DOB continued to meet and publish new issues of The Ladder into the 1970s, connecting women across the country and giving rise to dozens of other lesbian and feminist organizations nationwide. Thanks to Internet Archive, we curated some of our favorite covers of The Ladder for your viewing—you can see how the tone and messaging evolves as the LGBTQ+ movement more firmly takes hold over the decades.

We’ll be posting more throughout the month, so stay tuned for other updates like this. (And if you don’t want to miss a beat from the Center, you can always turn those post notifications on. We promise we won’t spam ya!)

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