A new center for LGBTQ immigrants will soon open in Los Angeles

​​A first-of-its-kind community space, soon to be built, looks to become a home away from home for transgender, gender expansive and intersex immigrants living in Los Angeles. 

Last Friday morning, the TransLatin@ Coalition (TLC) held a groundbreaking ceremony to announce the start of construction for the organization’s new permanent home in Hollywood.

When the facility opens next year, it will provide LGBTQ immigrants with community care, housing, leadership and health resources. 

TLC said that more than a physical space, the building will be  a testament of a powerful investment in community resilience, leadership and the future of transgender and gender-expansive people, especially during a time when the LGBTQ community has been subject to numerous attacks from the Trump administration.

Local and nationwide advocacy groups and organizations like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) have denounced executive orders or policies introduced by Donald Trump that have disproportionately affected LGBTQ individuals, such as establishing a federal definition of gender as binary, halting the issuance of "X" gender markers on passports for non-binary individuals, banning transgender people from serving in the military and cutting federal funding for hospitals and clinics that provide gender-affirming care to minors. 

“While systems fail us, we build for ourselves,” said Bamby Salcedo, president and chief executive officer of the TLC. “We are creating the first trans wellness and empowerment center in L.A. A place where many of us will call home, a place that will make dreams and great futures a reality. We are not waiting to be saved; we are building.”

Located in the heart of Hollywood in Sunset, the new facility will be home to the Center for Violence Prevention and Transgender Wellness, which looks to offer life-saving resources and wrap-around services to LGBTQ individuals, including immigrants.

According to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, in 2024, approximately 665,000 LGBTQ adults live in L.A. County, with about 14% of them identifying as transgender or nonbinary.

The TLC was founded in 2009 as a grassroots movement looking to address the urgent and unique needs of transgender, gender expansive, and intersex immigrants in the U.S. through things like advocacy, empowerment, and direct support. 

In 2016, the organization established its first-ever office in L.A. 

After ten years of opening their first offices in 2016, the organization said the new center would allow them to reach more people, especially immigrants who are often uninsured, do not speak English, or live in low-income communities with limited resources. 

The organization is one of the 90 active organizations part of the Immigrants Are LA (IRLA) coalition, which is dedicated to ensuring immigrants in L.A. have equitable access to resources and advocating for a percentage of the city’s budgetary investments to go into services for undocumented or mixed-status families. 

“At a time when LGBTQ+ rights are under threat—and transgender and immigrant communities face growing scrutiny—seeing this organization and the people it serves continue to thrive gives me hope,” said California State Assemblymember Rick-Chavez Zbur, who spoke at Friday’s ceremony. 

Congresswoman Laura Friedman, Advocates for Human Potential director Mark Faucette and Robin Toma, the executive director of L.A. vs Hate, were also present at Friday’s event. 

As part of the inaugural ceremony, the TLC also organized a time capsule activity, where community members who were present were able to leave notes, photos and memorabilia that would be buried at the site and disinterred and uncovered in 2056. 

Many of the community members wrote messages of support and gratitude toward the center, which is set to finish construction in 18 months. 

“This past Friday, we broke ground on a dream. We aren’t just building a structure; we are creating a sanctuary where our community can thrive,” the TLC said.