LGBTQ+ Support Resources

Organizations

• Rainbow Families Bay Area is a parent-run group that supports trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming children and their parents. There are virtual meetings for parents only, parents and their children under 12, parents of middle schoolers, and youth 12-17.
• Trans Families has several special focus national Zoom meetings for parents, including those with kids who are non-binary; both trans and neuro-diverse; in elementary school or younger; in middle school; and those whose kids are adults. There are also online groups for kids of various ages, including one for 8-10 year olds.
• Trans Families of Santa Cruz County has meetings for parents with transgender children of all ages from toddler to adult, as well as get-togethers for gender diverse elementary age children and their families.
• Trans Family Support Services in Southern California has online groups for parents of transgender adults, teens and pre-teens, children 12 and under, and dual spectrum kids.
• TransYouth Family Allies (TYFA) has resources for youth, parents, educators, and other allies.
• National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) provides introductory material as well as a review of issues, rights, and some self-help guides.
• SEE ALSO Billy de Frank, San Mateo Pride Center, and Outlet described below.

A book list and PFLAG publications can be found under Education.

Health

PFLAG does not recommend specific providers, but you may find answers to your questions about gender affirming care using the following resources. When you inquire you will need to ask which services are currently available based on age and ask about current privacy policies.

• The UCSF Child and Adolescent Gender Center (CAGC) offers comprehensive medical and psychological care, as well as advocacy and legal support, to transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse children and adolescents, age 3 to 17.  There is a clinic in San Mateo.
• Stanford’s Pediatric and Adolescent Gender Clinic, located in Sunnyvale, serves children, adolescents, and young adults.
• The UCSF Gender Affirming Health Program is a multi-disciplinary program  for transgender and non-binary adults.
• Planned Parenthood Mar Monte (the PP chapter for our region) offers gender affirming hormones for those 18+ and for ages 16-17 with parental consent.
• Kaiser provides transgender care for members in Santa Clara and Redwood City , as well as in Oakland where it is called the Multi-Specialty Transitions (MST) Department.
• The Gender Health Center associated with Santa Clara Valley Medical Center offers care, support and referrals for all ages.
• The Gender Clinic at the Valley Homeless Healthcare Program in East San Jose provides care for people experiencing homelessness, and has medical walk-in visits on Monday mornings.
• The Gender Affirming Care Clinic (GACC) provides outpatient behavioral health services to transgender and gender diverse folks age 5 to adult in Santa Clara County who are on Medi-Cal or uninsured. The GACC says it “strives to support folks with gender exploration and congruence, as well as cultivating gender joy.”
• Lyon-Martin Community Health Services in San Francisco provides gender affirming care using the informed consent model.
• Telemedicine is provided by QueerDoc

Legal – Name and/or Gender Marker Change

• The Transgender Law Center, based in California, has guides to changing state and federal identity documents.
• The California Court Self-Help Guide has specific information for San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, etc…
• Lambda Legal Identity Document Guidance
• Advocates for Transgender Equality (A4TE) ID Document Center

Organizations

• San Jose: Billy de Frank LGBTQ+ Community Center has many discussion groups.
• San Mateo County Pride Center has various virtual peer groups for ages 14-25 and for ages 18+.
• San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties: Outlet, a program of ACS (Adolescent Counseling Services), has facilitated peer support groups for ages 10-18 and 14-25. It also offers counseling to those age 10-25 and therapy groups for youth and for parents.
• LGBTQ Youth Space on Zanker Road in San Jose is for LGBTQ and ally youth and young adults age 13-25 living in Santa Clara County. They also offer free counseling for those on Medi-Cal.
• Coast Pride provides a drop in space for middle schoolers and high schoolers, peer support for trans adults, and peer support for parents of LGBTQ+ youth and adults.
• Oakland LGBTQ Community Center has a large variety of support groups and services.
• San Francisco: LYRIC Center for LGBTIQQ Youth serves mostly low income youth.
• San Francisco: SF LGBT CENTER
• Bay.LGBT is a calendar of SF Bay area LGBTQ activities.
• Bisexual Resource Center
• Bay Area Bi+ & Pan Network (BABPN)
• The Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State has many publications related to support for LGBTQ children and adolescents.
• Campus Pride has a data base of LGBTQ-friendly college campuses.
• The Trevor Project has mental health support and resources for LGBTQ+ young people.

For Queer Parents and Partners

• COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) is for people with one or more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer parent.
• Our Family Coalition, based in San Francisco and Oakland, provides support for LGBTQ+ parents and prospective parents.

Health

• Queer Life Space. Queer LifeSpace has a training program for queer therapists and provides affordable mental health and substance abuse services to the LGBTQ+ community, in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
• Magnet provides sexual health care services in San Francisco. It is a service of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
• The Shanti Project in the Tenderloin and in the Mission District of San Francisco, has an HIV program and also offers supportive services to LGBTQ older adults.
• Maitri, in San Francisco, provides residential care for those with debilitating HIV/AIDS or are recovering from gender affirmation surgery.

Legal

• ACLU of Northern CA on students legal rights
• AIDS Legal Referral Panel (ALRP) provides free and low cost legal services to people with HIV/AIDS in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Faith

• PFLAG National Faith Resources

• interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth

AAPI

• See  PFLAG Connects: Asian American & Pacific Islander Community for resources, and information on virtual meetings held by several organizations, geared to people of Japanese, Vietnamese, South Asian, and other Asian and Pacific Island descent.
• National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance  (NQAPIA) has coming out and family acceptance resources in nearly a dozen languages.
• Desi Rainbow for South Asian LGBTQIA+ people and their families.
• And in the Bay Area see:
  • Trikone, for LBGTQ folks of South Asian descent.
  • Lavender Phoenix, for queer and trans Asians and Pacific Islanders.
• A few short videos:
  • A Place to Call Home is available in 7 languages
  • Supporting My Son’s Coming Out, As a Christian Pastor
  • Asian Parents & LGBTQ Children on Unconditional Love
  • Unspoken: Asian Americans on Coming Out to Immigrant Parents

Black/African-American

• The Oakland LGBTQ Community Center offers in person support groups for Queer Black men and for Black transgender women.
• See PFLAG Connects: Black / African American for a virtual meeting and list of other organizations and resources.

Latino

• See PFLAG Connects: Latino Community for a virtual meeting and list of other organizations and resources.

Native American

• Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) is a community-based volunteer organization offering culturally relevant activities for LGBT and Intersex Native Americans and their families and friends.

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