Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center

The Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center is building community and promoting the healing effects of social connection by hosting discussion and leadership groups, along with educational and social activities and events, for LGBTQ+ people and allies. Its purpose is to help break the isolation and loneliness that the U.S. Surgeon General's 2023 advisory on social connection describes as an epidemic across the country. For many people in the South Bay, it is the place to find out what is happening in the community and which LGBTQ+ affirming services are available nearby.

The Center opened its doors in March 1981 in a two-room storefront on Keyes Street in south downtown San Jose. A year earlier, its founders had watched Santa Clara County voters repeal ordinances extending housing and employment protections to lesbians and gay men, and the Center was their answer to that setback: a safe place to gather and a starting point for purposeful action. It carries the name of William Price, a popular African American activist of the 1970s who loved everyone and financially supported many LGBTQ+ organizations and causes through his drag performances as Billy DeFrank. He died in 1980, and the Center embraces what it calls his Spirit of Inclusion, Love and Generosity, the same words painted across the giant mural on its building.

Today the Center serves a large and diverse community, with visitors coming from as far north as Foster City and as far south as Gilroy. Peer-led discussion groups meet for transgender men, transgender women, nonbinary people, bi and pan folks, the South Bay ace and aro community, gay men and LGBTQ+ women, and PFLAG families gather there too, with some groups meeting in person and others on Zoom. The Road to Wellness Group, Billy's Book Club, crafting and knitting nights, the Queer Craft Club and The Coalition of Pen and Ink round out the lineup.

Health is part of the work. Through the AACI HOPE Program, the Center offers free HIV and hepatitis C testing on a walk-in basis, with appointments also welcome. Visitors can choose anonymous testing or confidential testing with written results, and results come back in about 20 to 30 minutes.

Vintage activities give LGBTQ+ older adults social time, learning and outings that reduce isolation and connect them with the wider LGBTQ+ and Silicon Valley community. Vintage luncheons at the Center are free, provided by the Silicon Valley Rainbow Rotary Club, and the group meets for coffee and heads out together on excursions.

The Billy DeFrank Queer Library is the largest library of exclusively LGBTQ+ books in the Bay Area, staffed by volunteers who help visitors pick out their next read and host author events. Rainbow Bingo, GAYme Night, karaoke, Hey Girl parties and the Garden Club bring people together for fun. The Center is a 501(c)(3) run by its board and volunteers, and it welcomes new volunteers and donations, one time or monthly.