Our Story
Located at the Center’s flagship Anita May Rosenstein Campus, the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s 1,600-square-foot Liberation Coffee House is a café and community space operated and staffed by graduates of the organization’s intergenerational Culinary Arts program, a three-month training program launched in 2019 to prepare LGBTQ youth and seniors from the Center for employment in the restaurant and hospitality industries. Revenue from this unique social enterprise will be reinvested into the Center’s life-changing and life-saving programs and services.
The Space
While the day‐to‐day use is a retail coffee shop, Liberation Coffee House’s agile space layout can be reconfigured quickly to accommodate gallery openings, meetings, lectures, celebrations, networking mixers, and other community events.
Our Design
Creating Liberation for a New Generation
The word “liberation” shares a special connection with the LGBT community. During the movement’s early years, activists demanded “gay liberation.” In 1971 the Center, known then as the Gay Community Services Center, opened its first “Liberation House” in Los Angeles, providing room and board for $1.50 a day for homeless LGBTQ youth and adults. It was the nation’s first facility of its kind. By 1972, six Liberation Houses were open throughout Los Angeles.
A photograph of the 1971 Liberation House is part of the collection of enlarged black-and-white historical Center photographs adorning the walls throughout the café.
