Oakland LGBTQ Center opens despite Trump budget cuts
OAKLAND, Calif. - Just weeks shy of plans to open a new satellite center, the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center is seeking funds to continue serving LGBTQ residents.
Co-founder and CEO Joe Hawkins said the organization was awarded over $600,000 in federal funding grants, some of which were put toward opening a new facility.
However, that money is no longer available after President Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing all money for LGBTQ health initiatives.
"It's like we're starting over again, but we have infrastructure. Last year our budget was $3 million. We operate six sites, and even pulling out of those (locations) is an issue because those are leases, so we have to deal with the impact of what happens when you pull out of a lease too early," Hawkins said in an interview with KTVU on Tuesday. "There's so many issues to grapple with right now, it's pretty overwhelming."
The satellite facility, located at 8400 Enterprise Way, will open on June 7 as planned.
Change in plans
The backstory:
Plans for the new facility date back to March 2024.
The Community Center signed a lease and bought furniture and equipment before the grant was canceled, so they're moving ahead with the opening, but Hawkins said the group will need help to keep operations up and running.
The Oakland LGBTQ Center had for years relied on federal grants, but Hawkins said that due to the group's name, they can't even apply for those funds anymore.
The Trump administration has issued orders to flag for review grant proposals that contain words including 'LGBT,' 'equity,' 'diversity,' and 'orientation' among others.
The Oakland LGBTQ Community Center's leadership plans to raise funds through private donors and corporations, but said it's unclear if that strategy will pay off.
In the meantime, they've enacted pay cuts and layoffs, and have been offered discounts from their service partners and their landlord, which have helped.
Those savings still aren't enough though. Hawkins said some services will be limited going forward.
"We won't be able to offer the same level of substance abuse services because that grant has been erased," Hawkins said. "We'll be working with community partners to navigate people to other providers. We just don't have enough staff to provide support to as many people as we would have liked."
Money troubles
Big picture view:
The loss of federal funds was just the first blow dealt to the organization.
Following the Trump administration's lead, corporate donors have also stopped their donations.
Hawkins said Amazon, which had funded the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center for the last two years, recently announced that it would no longer give money to the organization.
A statement from the digital retail giant, which has a $2.19 trillion market cap, said the company's giving this year is "primarily focused on cities with large employment centers, which in the Bay Area is San Francisco and Silicon Valley." The statement explained the shift was the result of mandating that employees return to those facilities five days a week.
"Everything has gone downhill since Trump took office," Hawkins said in a press release. "I don't know if people understood just how immediate the damage would be to LGBTQ+ organizations. We now know, four months in, the impact of Trump's actions is devastating to LGBTQ direct service organizations."
Federal and local
Local perspective:
State funding for LGBTQ health programs is also being eliminated, further impacting the Oakland LGBTQ Center's operations.
Gov. Gavin Newsom's revised state budget cut funding for two critical California Department of Public Health programs: the Gender Health Equity Section and the California Reducing Disparities Project.
The Gender Health Equity Section helps develop programs and policies "intended to eliminate gender-based health disparities in California," according to its website.
The California Reducing Disparities Project focuses on identifying solutions for historically unserved, underserved and inappropriately served communities. The project focused on five populations: African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, Latinos, Native Americans, and the LGBTQ community.
The Oakland LGBTQ Center opened in 2017, and since then has grown into a multi-site organization serving thousands of people with a range of services including STI tests and treatments, gender care scholarships, linkage to primary care, rental assistance, and mental health subsidies, among others.
The organization has also donated money to community-based groups, including Oakland Pride, Pride-TranScend and the recently established Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District, among others.