LGBT Life Center staff and supporters celebrated what CEO Stacie Walls called a “year of visibility” during the nonprofit’s second-ever state of the Center event.
Looking ahead, Walls knows the Center will need to find new ways to bring in funding.
“(That way) we are not dependent on really restrictive federal grants, because … that’s going to be problematic in the next administration.”
2024
For Walls and the rest of the LGBT Life Center’s leadership, 2024 was characterized by growth and change.
“In the past 12 months … our agency went (through) a transformation like none other,” said Chris Reybrouck, senior director of strategy and operations. “Not only in footprint expansion, but service delivery to better serve the needs of our LGBTQ community and people with HIV.”
The number of households served by the Center’s food pantry increased seven times from 322 in 2023 to more than 3,800 in 2024, amounting to more than 180,000 pounds of food.
A new partnership with Freddie, the leading mail-order provider of two STI and HIV prevention medications, increased Center patrons’ access to medicines like Pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, which has been shown to reduce the risk of contracting HIV by up to 99%. It’s offered free of charge to people without insurance, supported by a Virginia Department of Health grant.
The Center also celebrated the expansion and renovation of its Norfolk location as well as the opening of a Hampton location, which was years in the making. The new location created an LGBT-friendly place for people on the Peninsula to gather and access clinical and other services on their side of the water.
“We’ve been (serving) the Peninsula for over 30 years, so we’re not new,” Walls said. “It’s just that now we have a new building.”
Since the ribbon cutting in September, the Hampton location is now open five days per week . Initially optimistic for the location’s pharmacy to be fully operational by October, Walls said it’s now on track to get going “no later than March.”
Through the Center’s pharmacy, staff filled more than 1,500 prescriptions. The clinics also performed more than 2,000 HIV tests and more than 4,000 STI tests in 2024.
Its housing program served 255 households, with the vast majority of those leaving the program exiting into permanent housing.
Director of Community Engagement Michelle Reed noted they also partnered with Samuels Mobile Dental 2024, providing more than 200 dental appointments for people on Medicaid, and relaunched its mental health services.
In the summer, the Center hosted more than 30 Pride Month events.
Quan McLaurin, an LGBT Life Center board member, said these services and the community that’s grown around the Center are crucial to the “health, safety and building of our social fabric as queer people.”
“Queer young people are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers,” he said, adding that the figures are more dire for queer people of color.
“As we revel in the achievements and highlights from the past year, I want to ground us in the reality of why we do the work that we do.”
2025
The new year brings with it a dose of uncertainty for the organization as Donald Trump is set to step into the presidency.
The President-Elect has promised to roll back anti-discrimination policies for LGBT people, bar doctors from participating in Medicare and Medicaid if they provide gender affirming care and cut funding to schools that allow transgender and nonbinary students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identities.
“It is estimated right now that about 60% of LGBTQ nonprofits across this country are shrinking purposely to reserve resources so that if, and when, these cuts come in that we’ll be able to sustain,” Walls said.
She said she expects the new administration to also cut grant-providing agencies, and potentially institute new restrictions on money that would prohibit organizations from using it to serve transgender people.
The LGBT Life Center in 2024 collected more than $11.7 million in revenue, with close to $8 million of that coming from grants.
It’s why Walls and other leaders are calling on residents, whether LGBT or not, to participate in its clinic and pharmacy programs.
“Think about where you spend your money,” said Ken Nelms, the Center’s board director. “Walgreens and Rite Aids and Walmarts are making tons of money off of you through your insurance companies.”
“We can do the same here, and that money can go back into our own community,” he said.
The Center is also continuing to fight a $1.1 million lawsuit filed by former partner CAN Community Health.
According to the Virginian-Pilot, CAN is seeking what it says is money owed from a failed program to help patients without insurance or with low income with drug costs. The Life Center disputes the claim, saying CAN violated the agreement first and cost the organization a collective $3.2 million.
Walls said she hoped the lawsuit “would not be going this far.”
“It would be very painful,” she said. “No nonprofit I know has a million dollars sitting around that they just want to give to somebody else.”
Programmatically, the Center hopes to continue to grow participation in its programs and find new ways to serve patrons. They plan to continue efforts to review their policies and practices and alter them to promote racial equity at the Center.
The Center has also started convening a collective of organizations focused on serving transgender and nonbinary people in order to better coordinate with each other and improve their capacity to advocate for the community.
Walls said that could take the form of meetings with city councils to address access and engagement issues for transgender people on the Peninsula.
