Our History Transgender Health and Wellness Center - TRANSGENDER HEALTH & WELLNESS CENTER

The Transgender Health and Wellness Center began as the Transgender Community Coalition (TCC). It is a certified 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. In the beginning, its purpose was to raise funds for the first Transgender Day of Remembrance Memorial Cenotaph Statue. Due to the strong demand by the local Transgender, Intersex, gender non-conforming, gender fluid, non-binary community, we became the largest Transgender organization in the Inland Empire, serving the needs of the local Transgender community. Currently, we all work in compassionate volunteer positions in a wide range of social services—including linkage to care, HIV/AIDS and PrEP education, housing, employment, and other support needs. Our mission is for this community to be empowered and reach their highest potential.

With over 40 active volunteers, the Trans Center serves in a wide variety of volunteer positions in other community organizations. We do this to ensure that Transgender people are visible and have a voice within the wider LGBT community. Partner organizations include:

Desert AIDS Project
Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast
National Transgender HIV Testing Day
Cathedral City LGBT Days
Desert Stonewall Democrats
National Center of Lesbian Rights
Human Rights Campaign
Equality California
TruEvolution
Borrego Health Care Foundation
Eisenhower Medical Center
Congressman Raul Ruiz
Inland Empire Health Plan
ViiV Healthcare
Department of Justice
Cars of Yester-Year
The LGBT Community Center
Temple Isaiah/ Jewish Community Center
Bloom in the Desert Ministries
Safe Schools of the Desert
Latina Coalition
Operation SafeHouse
Sanctuary Palm Springs
Palm Springs Unified School District
Girl Scouts
College of the Desert Gay-Straight Alliance
APAIT
Riverside County Public Health
Riverside County Department of Mental Health
Icon City Entertainment Organization
Transgender Service of Excellence

In 2017, the Trans Center was recognized by Travelocity as being one of the main organizations that make Palm Springs the best place to live.

The Trans Center has served over 3,000 people since 2018, with over 1,100 new enrollments in 2021, linking them to medical and mental health care, legal services, housing, employment, and other resources. The Trans Center has facilitated training for approximately 1,200 healthcare professionals in the last year alone. The ongoing mission is to train other Transgender people to provide education on healthcare education, human resources, career, HIV and PrEP, and to develop possible future employment skillsets. We always aspire to broaden the resources of the Trans Center —including additional office space. When achieved, this will be a historical moment for the local Transgender community.

The Trans Center monitors correctional institutions to ensure LGBTQ+ inmates are free from sexual violence and are provided valuable resources for rehabilitation and safe community re-entry. The Trans Center responds to hundreds of letters a year from inmates.
The Trans Center created the Raina Chessman Fund—named after a Palm Springs Transgender woman who was murdered in Whitewater, California in 1999. The funds raised help the local Transgender community in the Coachella Valley during life crises. The Trans Center recognizes that many Transgender people do not have access to family support and employment—often as a consequence for living their authentic lives. In 2017, 9,434 people were educated about Raina and the Fund; and 323 persons participated in either supporting the Fund or borrowing from it. TGMondays, which is held on the second Monday of each month at Bongo Johnny’s Patio Bar and Grille, was created to help raise money for the Raina Chessman Fund. Without these generous donations, the local Transgender community would suffer greatly.

With the assistance of the Desert AIDS Project, the Trans Center received a 100-foot Transgender Pride flag to march in the annual Palm Springs Pride Parade. This flag is used to unify the Transgender community; and it sends the message that Transgender people exist and deserve equality. We share the flag with other cities so they too can send this valuable message.

The Trans Center brought Transgender Day of Remembrance to the next level in Palm Springs by providing special guests like
national Transgender leaders Mya Taylor and Aydian Dowling. The first Transgender Day of Remembrance Memorial Cenotaph Statue was created by the renowned artist, Health Satow in memory of all the Transgender people who have lost their lives to hate and violence.