Joe Hollendoner (photo courtesy of the L.A. LGBT Center)

On July 1, longtime Los Angeles LGBT Center CEO Lorri L. Jean retired, handing over the reins to Joe Hollendoner. He has been with the center since last July, working under the title of executive director while learning the ropes of the organization.

In Jean’s tenure, which consisted of two extended terms dating back to 1993, the LGBT Center grew to become the largest organization of its kind of the nation. Currently, the center operates 10 campuses across Los Angeles, including a flagship building in Hollywood.

“As overwhelming as it feels to be stepping into a role that Lorri has held for 25 years and an icon that she is, I feel very uniquely prepared for this moment and very excited about what’s ahead for me and the center,” Hollendoner said. “There’s something really powerful about the fact that part of what Lorri’s legacy is, is my ability to do this work as a professional – that she and so many other movement leaders forged a path by which this career is possible for me.”

For Hollendoner, leading the LGBT Center is a privilege he does not take for granted.

“As someone who has long admired the work of the center and certainly Lorri, being on the inside of this organization and learning about it and immersing myself so deeply in the last year, I mean, the work that we do is just mind blowing. And there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t feel so deeply proud and humbled to be selected by the board to be this organization’s next leader, and I just have such optimism for what the future will bring for the center,” he said.

Hollendoner’s path to the center started when he came out as a teenager.

“I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and I went to an all-boys Catholic high school,” Hollendoner said. “Sixteen is when I began identifying as gay, and it is with great relief that I had a term to represent my feelings and my identify. Upon claiming that identity for myself, the bullying and the physical abuse that I experienced at my school began to increase pretty significantly. Oftentimes it would just be kind of written off by teachers or other school personnel as ‘boys being boys.’ But there was a particular day that a group of guys that were a bit bigger than me cornered me and just started calling me derogatory terms and physically throwing punches at me, and I don’t recall exactly how I got away, but I did.”

Hollendoner next remembers being in his principal’s office, with blood and tears streaming down his face.

“What are you going to do to protect me?” he asked the principal.

Hollendoner said the principal took a pregnant pause.

“I’m going to pray for you,” the principal said.

“And for me at that moment, [I had] a realization of how isolating being gay could be,” Hollendoner said, adding that it was then he had one of two choices. He could either sink into depression, or he could go out and get the help he deserved.

“Fortunately, I went to the local public library after that interaction and got on this new-fangled thing called the internet and realized that there was a gay youth drop-in center that wasn’t too far away from my home. [I] went to it the next week, and that center is what changed my life,” he said.

Hollendoner added that in the 1990s, with the internet in its primitive state, it was more difficult to find community.

“While there was this idea that in a certain part of Chicago up on the north side, there was a space that was affirming of LGBT people, that felt like a million miles away for me,” he said. “I felt pretty alone in the world. Finding out that there was a group that was 30 minutes away from my suburban home felt like it was maybe accessible, and it was something that I could find support and community in. I’m so glad that I had the courage to go.”

After being mentored by this organization, Hollendoner became a staff member for the group.

“[It] really allowed me to experience what it was like to engage in a life of service and advocacy for my community, so it is ultimately what led me to pursue degrees in social work and public health. I think for me what is really unique about my candidacy and my leadership is I’m someone who has been, for 25 years now, working in the LGBT movement,” he said.

Hollendoner obtained degrees from the Univestriy of Illinois Chicago and served in various roles in his native city, including at Howard Brown Health, the largest LGBTQ+ health organization in the Midwest, and as the chief of staff and first deputy commissioner at the Chicago Department of Public Health. In 2016, he moved to a role as CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

Since landing in Los Angeles a year ago, though, Hollendoner said he has found his new, permanent home.

“I was born and raised in Chicago, and I thought I would live there for the rest of my life. Never did I imagine myself coming out to California, let alone living in Los Angeles, but I can tell you after a year of being here, that Los Angeles is home. I think I have found my forever home in L.A.,” he said.

Hollendoner said the people are the reason he has connected so strongly with the city.

“I think for me the thing that I like the most, and it’s sort of the most surprising, is just how kind the people of Los Angeles are. There’s this stereotype out there about the superficiality of Angelenos, and I have not experienced that once. I think the people here in Los Angeles are politically savvy, they’re engaged in their community, certainly more inclusive than I’ve experienced in other cities I’ve lived in. I just feel there’s something really special here. I can see why this community has produced the largest LGBT organization in the world, because it’s so invested in caring for itself. I really do mean that. I’ve made friends so quickly here that I never could’ve imagined.”

Looking ahead at the center, Hollendoner said the first order of business is to stabilize the organization as he steps into his new role.

“Anytime an organization experiences the transition of a long-tenured successful CEO, it can destabilize an organization, so I’m really working hard with the board and the senior staff to make sure there’s as much continuity as possible … and not just for our stakeholders but for clients and community members alike,” he said.

Hollendoner cited a variety of goals looking toward the LGBT Center’s future.

“After we get through this next year, it’s really about leaning into what I see as some of the most significant challenges that we’re facing as a community,” he said. “That has everything to do with the continued disparities that LGBTQ people of color, and particularly trans black women, experience. It means addressing the unmet mental health needs of our community. Something that I’m very passionate about is substance user health, so making sure that we continue efforts to destigmatize substance use, prevent overdose deaths but also connect people to treatment that they need. And then the last area that is certainly of most significance, in my opinion, is housing. I think the center has done great work not only in being a housing provider, but doing housing advocacy work, and I think we need to continue to bring together what we think are best practices and solutions for a really complex issue that we know disproportionately affects queer people.”

In the end, Hollendoner, cited the steadfast love of his spouse as his guiding light.

“I am so thankful to my husband Bill [a public school teacher] that he has supported my career and my desire to move to Los Angeles to take on this big job, and I see him just as proud of the center as I am. I cannot offer my appreciation to him more. What he has chosen to do for our family to allow me to pursue my dreams is something for which I have immense gratitude,” Hollendoner said.