Support the Lakeshore Lavender Lounge!

The Oakland LGBTQ Community Center is bringing substance-free LGBTQ+ third spaces back to Oakland! Help us raise $100,000 to launch our new Lakeshore Lavender Lounge & Cafe.

For years, the Oakland community has hungered for community spaces where queer and trans people and our allies don't have to drink alcohol or spend copiously to feel welcome. The Oakland LGBTQ Community Center has long envisioned a public-facing "third place" that would provide a beautiful safe space for LGBTQ elders and youth to find community and offer a truly alcohol-free social alternative to the bar scene.

In 2025 we learned that the building directly across from our main campus would soon be available. Formerly home to True apparel, this 1920 art deco building has a rich queer history that includes playing host to a venue known as the "Gay Club" in 1947 - a legacy that anticipates its current identity as the heart of Oakland's Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District.

Mindful of this history and the today's vital call to reaffirm queer and trans people's place in the public sphere, we secured the property in March of 2026. The Center envision a coffee house vibe with a lending library to showcase our LGBTQ history and other stories about our lives.

We have already built out the lending library and are looking to raise funds to help build out a second bathroom and a coffee, tea, and beverage bar. We will also need funds to decorate the space to make it as inviting and comfortable as possible.

The Lakeshore Lavender Lounge represents a unique oasis of LGBTQ+ safety and culture that is a first for our city. Not only will it generate income for our nonprofit at a time of limited grant funding, provide young people in our youth program with job training and workplace skills, and host dedicated space for our elder community Monday through Thursday during the hours of 9am-5pm, but it will serve as a cultural crossroads for all of Oakland, hosting book readings, wellness activities, spoken word evenings, drag performances, guest speakers, live music, DJ sets, and substance-free dance parties.

We are living in a time of dwindling physical LGBTQ spaces locally and nationwide, coupled with a hostile federal government that has sought at every turn to eliminate funding for LGBTQ-serving organizations, as the Center experienced in 2025 when SAMHSA abruptly cut a $600,000 grant we had already been awarded. When AI tools are misused by DOGE to identify and disenfranchize LGBTQ voices, it's more important than ever for our community to come together in person to celebrate real human connection, spend money at queer and trans business in our own neighborhoods, and build economies of care that render hatred powerless.

Invest in the Lakeshore Lavender Lounge today and help us write the next chapter of queer and trans history together.