LGBT Life Center CEO Stacie Walls publicly fretted in January that her organization’s queer advocacy could lead to the Trump administration cutting off its public funding. Federal records show that her fears were at least somewhat unfounded.
LGBT Life Center, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization that provides services and support to transgender youth while openly opposing President Donald Trump’s agenda, received nearly $1 million from his administration between March and July, a Washington Examiner review of spending records has found. The grants, disbursed by the Department of Health and Human Services, funded the organization’s programs aimed at preventing the spread of HIV.
One of the Trump administration’s first major campaigns following the president’s inauguration concerned cutting off the flow of taxpayer funds to organizations and initiatives viewed as out of step with his agenda. The administration was aggressive early on, implementing mass spending freezes while, at times, being hamstrung by court orders. As evidenced by the grants to LGBT Life Center and other recently surfaced grants, the administration’s attempts to clamp down on funding to left-of-center groups have not been entirely successful.
The most recent of these grants was awarded on July 22, when HHS paid out $441,625 to fund an HIV prevention program run by LGBT Life Center. A description appended to this transaction described the program as serving “African-American and multi-racial [men who have sex with men]” through the provision of testing resources, social media outreach, and the distribution of condoms, among other things.
“HHS continues to align with President Trump’s Executive Orders to restore biological truth to the federal government,” a spokesperson for the agency told the Washington Examiner. “In response to the Biden administration’s obsession with gender ideology and sexual identity, HHS is eliminating DEI funding and redirecting resources toward real improvements in health and well-being.”
One of the grants that LGBT Life Center has received from the federal government, $1.8 million in congressionally directed funding to build a new clinic, began under the Biden administration and carried on through July, a source within HHS told the Washington Examiner. LGBT Life Center is also a currently funded subrecipient of federal funds through the city of Norfolk, Virginia, and the Virginia Department of Health, which are responsible for ensuring compliance with HHS policy, per that source.
Despite its ample federal funding, LGBT Life Center does not hide its opposition to the president’s public positions.
The center, for instance, partners with Truth & Purpose Counseling, an organization that provides “gender-affirming” therapy to 14-year-olds. On its intake form, which it uses to connect people to counselors, the center does not ask people for their ages and offers them a “discreet” form of contact — a tactic often used by LGBT organizations to avoid possibly unsupportive parents from confronting their children.
Additionally, the center holds a recurring event for transgender or otherwise queer people aged 12-18 who “experience marginalization based on their gender identity, gender expression, and/or sexual orientation.” After attending their first meeting, the youths are invited to join a Discord server to stay in touch with each other.
In addition to holding programming that clashes with the administration’s stance on LGBT issues, the center mobilized its community to oppose Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and participated in protests accusing the president of tyranny. Further evidencing the ideological bent of LGBT Life Center’s leadership and workforce, every campaign contribution attributable to an employee of the center that appears in the Federal Election Commission’s database was made out to a Democratic committee.
LGBT Life Center has historically been highly dependent on taxpayer funding to keep its lights on. In 2024, for instance, its tax filings show that it received $7,766,161 in federal grants, a comfortable majority of its roughly $11.9 million in total revenue. The relatively small sum it has received so far in 2025 could leave it with a significant funding gap.
Federal records show that LGBT Life Center was slated to receive considerable funding this year from the Department of Housing and Urban Development through a Biden-era program to support its homelessness prevention programs. However, those funds have been frozen pending a legal dispute.
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Center personnel have said they are exploring alternative fundraising routes to insulate the center from the influence of the federal government.
LGBT Life Center and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.