A Los Angeles community centre for transgender and non-binary people has opened a first-of-its-kind healthcare clinic providing a host of services for locals.

Californian trans safe space, the Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center (CONOTEC) cut the ribbon on the newly opened Connie Norman Transgender Health Care Clinic on Saturday (14 March).

The newly opened service, opening on the second floor of the CONOTEC building, aims to provide a variety of services to community members across LA, including HIV and STI testing.

Organisers will reportedly work alongside the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and FLUX, a trans-led advocacy organisation, to operate a health clinic that organisers say is a “safe and welcoming facility that is open for all”.

“This major addition of the clinic to CONOTEC will be key to community members, as they will now have access to services provided in their neighbourhood,” a spokesperson for AHF said. 

The development comes as the Trump administration continues to attack gender-affirming care for transgender youngsters in US states where it is still legal to provide.

In June last year the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA), an LA paediatrician that served more than 3,000 trans youth, shuttered its gender-affirming care programme in what organisers called a “painful and significant” setback for trans rights.

An email shared at the time by MadyCast News cited “legal and financial risks” stemming from what officials called a “shifting policy landscape at both the state and federal levels”.

Several hospitals in blue states followed suit after the Justice Department allegedly subpoenaed over 20 doctors and medical facilities who had provided gender-affirming care.

Earlier this month, a US Court of Appeals separately ruled that West Virginia could implement a ban on gender-affirming surgeries for trans adults, claiming US states had a duty to “encourage citizens to appreciate their sex”.

While CONOTEC has yet to clarify whether the clinic will provide support in accessing gender-affirming care, its creation is a step forward, allowing trans Californians to access vital services without fear of discrimination.

The wave of transphobic actions by the government prompted several genocide scholars to argue the country is in the early stages of a “mass atrocity” against the population.

A report from the US Department of Health (HHS) published in May last year recommended the use of “exploratory therapy” in place of potentially life-saving gender-affirming care for trans youngsters, leading to fears that the administration could implement federally funded conversion therapy.