San Diego LGBT Center
MISSION
- Mission: The San Diego LGBT Community Center enhances and sustains the health and well-being of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, nonbinary, immigrant, and HIV communities to the betterment of our entire San Diego region.
- Vision: At The San Diego LGBT Community Center, every person feels and knows that they are welcomed, valued, and supported. As the beacon for our regional LGBTQ community, each day we actively recommit to be a more vibrant, bold, innovative, safe, and modern Center than the day before.
Who We Are
Aaron Ngan, pronouns he/they, is the Civic Engagement Coordinator at The Center and represents The Center at the Engage table. As the son of a Cambodian refugee, Aaron grew up between his house in Anaheim and his father’s photography studio in Long Beach. They received their B.A. in History and Ethnic Studies from UC San Diego. Aaron has been The Center’s Civic Engagement Coordinator since August 2022, joining The Center’s Advocacy and Civic Engagement team right as the November 2022 midterm general election was coming up. Since then, they have participated in and graduated from The Center’s Young Professionals Council leadership program and want to continue to become more involved in San Diego advocacy.
Where We Work
The San Diego LGBT Community Center serves the entire San Diego region with the main Center located in Hillcrest. Other Center sites include two youth centers located in Hillcrest and Chula Vista, North Park Senior Apartments, and our Sunburst Youth Housing Project. The Center’s civic engagement work spans across the entirety of San Diego County.
BASE DEMOGRAPHICS
As listed in our mission statement, The Center serves San Diego’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, nonbinary, immigrant, and HIV communities.
ISSUES WE CARE ABOUT
The Center’s Advocacy and Civic Engagement program primarily conducts nonpartisan Get Out the Vote campaigns leading up to local and national elections. With a political climate that is becoming increasingly hostile towards LGBTQ+ folks, we emphasize the importance of our community making their voices heard at the ballot box. As the trusted messenger to San Diego’s LGBTQ+ community, we ensure that folks have the information they need to make voting easy and accessible.
PAST CAMPAIGN SUCCESS
The Center’s Civic Engagement program has run GOTV campaigns for elections on local and national levels, including a nonpartisan voter engagement campaign in November 2020 which had nearly 5,700 folks pledge to vote. Also in 2020, The Center participated in encouraging folks to participate in the census, adapting outreach strategies to the needs of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, The Center joined a City Redistricting coalition led by Mid-City CAN, Asian Solidarity Collective, Pillars of the Community, and Alliance San Diego to provide LGBTQ+ community input in San Diego City’s redistricting process. In 2023, The Center launched its Fierce Advocacy and Civic Engagement (FACE) volunteer team, which has been successful in getting more than 2,500 folks to commit to vote in the special election for the San Diego County District 4 Board of Supervisors seat.
