Description
The Los Angeles LGBT Center is a community services center serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community of
Los Angeles. Its former name was the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. The collection contains institutional documents
as well as programming and event information from 1975-1992.
Background
In Spring 1971, a group of activists from the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) held
a series of meetings at the home of GLF activist John Platania, to create an organization to provide social services for members
of the gay and lesbian community, many of whom were marginalized and on the street, in the Hollywood/Silverlake area of the
city of Los Angeles, and in the adjoining unincorporated area of West Hollywood, in Los Angeles County. Platania, who had
worked for the Los Angeles Community Development Agency, drew up a detailed development plan for a nonprofit organization
to offer services via a hot line and services for people living on the street, instituted by the MCC and the Liberation House,
a crisis housing facility at 1168 North Edgemont, in Hollywood, opened by the GLF's Survival Committee. The formal proposal,
prepared by GLF activist Don Kilhefner, was submitted on July 14, 1971, and the articles of incorporation were signed by Morris
Kight, June Herrle, James Kepner, and John Platania on July 22, 1971. The articles were filed in the office of the California
Secretary of State on January 4, 1972.
Restrictions
Property rights to the physical object belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright, are
retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.