EL CENTRO — A joint statement from prominent LGBTQ+ organizations, including San Diego Pride, TransFamily Support Services and the San Diego LGBT Community Center, has denounced the rebranding of the Imperial Valley LGBTQ Resource Center into the Donnelly Community Services Center, calling it “harmful, divisive, and rooted in rhetoric that echoes anti-trans narratives.”
The backlash highlights growing tensions within the community, with critics accusing the center’s leadership of marginalizing transgender individuals.
The statement draws attention to a broader concern among LGBTQ+ organizations and advocates: the rebranding is seen as a move that undermines the unity and progress of the LGBTQ+ movement, particularly at a time when transgender and nonbinary individuals face heightened attacks nationwide, the statement said.
Critics argue that the decision signals a troubling departure from the center’s original mission, which was to “create a safe place and connect members of the LGBT community to essential resources.” The controversy has drawn sharp rebukes from local leaders, national organizers and community members, many of whom view the rebranding as an erasure of transgender voices and needs.
“TransFamily Support Services, North County LGBTQ Resource Center, San Diego Pride and The San Diego LGBT Community Center are deeply disappointed by the Imperial Valley LGBTQ Resource Center’s decision to rebrand in a way that distances itself from trans-inclusive services,” the joint statement read.
The organizations’ remarks pointed to the broader implications of the rebranding, noting that it mirrors harmful rhetoric used to delegitimize transgender rights. “This shift … undermines the strength and unity of the LGBTQ+ movement as a whole,” the statement continued. “The outpouring of support for trans youth is not driven by an agenda — it is a necessary response to the urgent and life-threatening challenges they face.”
This statement is likely responding to comments made by Donnelly center Chief Executive Officer and organization founder Rosa Diaz in her interview with another local news publication, the Desert Review, available in full on YouTube, where she said, “Policy makers or policies were changing where now youth were being given the rights to make changes to their names and to their gender markers … There was a strong consensus in wanting to give children all the rights and put parental rights on the back burner, and that really concerned me.”
Diaz’s comments appear to reference California Assembly Bill 1955, the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth, or Safety Act, which prevents school staff from disclosing a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation to parents without the student’s consent. Supporters of the bill argue it is a necessary safeguard for LGBTQ+ youths who may face rejection or harm at home, while critics, like Diaz, see it as a measure that diminishes parental involvement.
Despite multiple attempts to reach Diaz for comment on the backlash and concerns raised by both local advocates and national organizations, she did not respond by the deadline for this article.
Local advocates echoed the sentiments of the joint statement against the center. Raul Ureña, former mayor of Calexico and the first transgender Latina mayor on the U.S.-Mexico border, criticized the decision, stating, “The Imperial Valley LGBT Resource Center has prioritized its political standing over its direct mission to empower the wellbeing of LGBTQ individuals in the Valley, and that includes respecting the right of transgender individuals to transition as they see fit in any point of their lives.”
Ureña further stressed the stakes for vulnerable youths in the region. “To force people to come out of the closet in the way that the LGBT Resource Center is supporting is putting them directly at risk of homelessness based on so many kids that get kicked out of their families in the Valley for being LGBT,” he said.
Diaz’s statements in her interview with the Desert Review suggested a concern about youths being encouraged to embrace certain identities without what she described as proper exploration or parental involvement.
“Right before COVID, one of the things that I heard often in our support groups — specifically the youth support group — was that the youth were more often identifying as non-binary or gender fluid,” Diaz said. “And then after COVID is when I heard more transgender. So I think that they went from basically questioning and researching to somehow then being encouraged to accept the transgender identity.”
She added, “Based on what I’ve seen, based on what I’ve heard, based on what the youth have shared, it’s not something that was there — it’s something that they later fell into or adapted into or adopted and that was because of the influences. So I think that we need to be very, very careful when we start teaching that you can be another gender rather than encouraging them to find themselves in the gender that they were born into.
“Sometimes it’s more of a disservice than a service,” she said. “One of the things that happened was that in California we have to, according to some of the state offices and some of the rights that transgender people have, it’s as if there is a must to affirm. And again when it comes to children I think that rather than giving them enough lee way for them to have an honest discussion, and meet with a professional where they can seriously discover themselves without being quickly affirmed, I think that that in itself can have a better outcome if we were to research a few years from now where these these youth are at.”
Critics argue that such positions risk framing gender exploration and affirmation as overly hasty, potentially discouraging youths from openly expressing their identities and seeking the support they need. They contend that this perspective could contribute to a culture where transgender and nonbinary individuals feel invalidated or unsupported, particularly in rural areas like the Imperial Valley where affirming resources are already limited.
“This ‘rebrand’ further limits the availability of supportive resources for trans youth and their families in the Imperial Valley — supportive resources that could change or save their lives,” the joint statement read. “It is deeply troubling that this is coming from within our own community, which should be a solid foundation for our youth and not an additional source of harm, especially when the mental and physical wellbeing of trans youth is at greater risk than ever under the incoming administration.”
The sentiment was echoed by Fernando Zweifach López Jr., a queer, nonbinary advocate from the Imperial Valley and senior strategist at the National LGBTQ Task Force. “The recent rebranding … under Rosa Diaz and the board’s leadership, as well as Rosa’s anti-trans comments, are not just a disappointing degradation of trust — it is a disgusting and dangerous betrayal of the very community the center was meant to serve,” López wrote in a public statement on Facebook.
López also pointed to the life-saving importance of gender-affirming care, citing research that supports its critical role in empowering transgender youths. They referenced The Trevor Project’s 2023 National Survey, which found that 41 percent of transgender and nonbinary youths had seriously considered suicide in the past year. “Those who received affirming care were less likely to attempt it,” López wrote of the tangible impact of access to such resources.
Gender-affirming care, López noted, follows rigorous, evidence-based protocols established by major medical organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association. “Suggesting otherwise fuels ignorance, stigmatization, and fear, putting vulnerable youth at even greater risk,” they added, drawing a direct line between rhetoric and the potential erosion of critical support systems for trans youths in the Imperial Valley.
Critics of the rebranding argue that the current backlash is not an isolated incident but part of a broader history of disagreements over the center’s inclusivity. Ureña, reflecting on the center’s evolution, stated, “There have been many disagreements on how inclusive the center is going to be, dating back to as far as 2015, when the center was established.” These ongoing tensions, according to Ureña, have often centered on whether the center’s policies and practices align with its stated mission to serve and empower members of the LGBT community.
The controversy surrounding the rebranding and the associated backlash has implications that reach far beyond the Imperial Valley. Advocates warn that the now rebranded Donnelly Community Services Center’s shift away from explicitly supporting transgender and nonbinary individuals could set a troubling precedent for other LGBTQ+ organizations in rural areas. “When organizations like this abandon the trans community, they embolden those who already seek to erase transgender people from public life,” López wrote, tying the center’s actions to the larger wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and sentiment seen across the country.
This perceived abandonment of trans and nonbinary individuals, particularly in a region as underserved as the Imperial Valley, risks deepening the divide within the LGBTQ+ movement. As the joint statement noted, “To separate the ‘LGB’ from the ‘T’ weakens the entire community and plays directly into the hands of those seeking to dismantle it, thereby harming us all.”
