Fifty current and former employees, former board members, volunteers and clients of Long Beach’s LGBTQ Center have signed a letter demanding the executive director be replaced in response to concerns about lapses to crucial programming, interruptions in medical care and poor treatment of staff and community members.
The Center is a Long Beach institution, offering health and legal services and a range of programming for LGBTQ clients since 1977, but in recent years, it’s been beset by complaints about its executive director, Ellie Perez. In interviews, signers of the letter said they fear that Perez could drive the Center into the ground.
There have already been “devastating impacts just short of collapse,” they wrote.
Perez was named interim director of the Center in 2023. Before that, she served as a board member beginning in 2021 and, during her tenure, “spearheaded” a vote to remove her predecessor, according to the board’s former president, John Newell.
Perez was appointed permanent executive director in 2024, earning a salary of $150,000 according to the nonprofit’s most recent available tax return. That same year, employees began raising concerns about Perez’s leadership and sought intervention from their human resources team, board of directors and local elected city officials, as first reported in a series of stories by Q Voice News.
The letter, sent on April 23, is the latest escalation. Enumerating dozens of accusations, it alleges that Perez demonstrated incompetent management, neglected critical tasks and alienated employees, clients and community members. If the current leadership remains in place, “the Center is unlikely to survive,” the letter said.
In response, the Center’s board says it hired an independent investigator after an initial assessment by its human resources provider. Board members also plan to hold a listening session to hear concerns directly from employees.
In an email to the Long Beach Post, the board did not detail the scope or timeline of the investigation but said it would be a “thorough and impartial assessment” and pledged to take action based on its findings. Perez did not respond to messages from the Post.
“Throughout this process, our commitment to the Center’s mission remains unchanged,” the board said. “We will continue serving our clients and community while advancing equity for LGBTQ people through advocacy, education, programs and services.”
That, so far, hasn’t been enough to assuage concerns from employees who say the Center’s services and reputation have already degraded.
The accusations
In interviews with the Post, a dozen signers of the letter described a hostile work environment and mismanagement, which they said stemmed from Perez’s lack of leadership and nonprofit experience. Community members said the programming and services they relied on were interrupted or ended — hurting the LGBTQ community the Center was intended to serve.
Jess Edmonds, a nurse practitioner at the Center who helped draft the letter, said she and other medical staff have lost faith in its ability to deliver lifesaving care for HIV-positive patients, a service it’s offered since Edmonds joined the team in March 2025 and helped expand its medical clinic.
After taking the job, Edmonds said she observed low morale and high turnover — more than 20 employees and board members quit or were fired in the last three years. Her colleagues said the common thread was Perez.
In an effort to change the Center’s culture, Edmonds organized her coworkers to write the letter and push for change. As a result, she was twice placed on administrative leave, which disrupted care for over 30 patients, she said, including people scheduled to receive time-sensitive injections of an HIV-prevention drug. Some patients who had appointments to receive the drug have not returned, Edmonds said.
Edmonds was reinstated, yet she filed a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board, claiming she experienced retaliation for activity protected by federal law. Now, Edmonds said she and the Center’s medical director plan to withdraw their medical licenses unless the board completes a thorough independent investigation into Perez. Without medical licenses, the Center would have to stop providing all medical care to the hundreds of patients who rely on it each month.
Esdras Othon Leitão, an AIDS activist, said he was a client of the Center for years until Perez chastised him for showing up without an appointment, as he was seeking housing resources while facing eviction. He signed the letter.
So did Dominique Hernandez, a clinical psychologist who said the Center’s climate became so stressful that she ended up in the emergency room from high blood pressure, took medical leave and eventually quit. Many of the programs and events for older adults that she helped run have since ended or been reduced, she said.
Gary Michovich, a former fundraiser and donor, lost confidence in the Center’s ability to handle its finances under Perez’s leadership and pulled his support. He signed the letter and said he talked to other donors who also felt dismissed by Perez.
Newell, who served as president of the Center’s board until he resigned in 2023, signed the letter and said he had watched the Center stagnate under Perez. Years ago, the Center was “bursting at the seams” and considering expanding to a second location, he said. Now, the Center is missing opportunities to serve residents of Long Beach, he said.
Parents of transgender children expressed frustration that the Center’s leadership had cut services they deemed essential. In 2024, Grace Lally began attending a Center support group after parents complained about Lally’s nonbinary child wearing dresses to preschool. Lally said she found “peace and community” at the Center and was able to bring her children to events even when finances were tight as she navigated a divorce.
That ended abruptly in August 2025 when Lally said she received an email explaining that the Center’s youth programming would pause due to funding losses. The Center had been instrumental in “improving the mental wellness of myself and my children,” Lally said, adding that losing that “felt like being abandoned.”
Other community members echoed these concerns and expressed frustration that the Center’s programming didn’t match community needs, a dissonance multiple people called “heartbreaking.” Shortly after the Trump administration began signing a barrage of executive orders in early 2025 limiting the rights of trans people, Hawk McFadzen, who is nonbinary, wanted information about how to navigate passport gender markers and gender-affirming care. Instead, the Center offered them self-care advice on “bubble baths and meditating,” they said.
McFadzen’s teenage child, who is trans, attended youth programming at the Center until it was interrupted. “I used to know where they were on Tuesdays and Fridays,” McFadzen said, adding, “now my kid is just out doing whatever in Long Beach.” McFadzen said they signed the letter because they want to see change.
For all the Center’s faults, they said, “it’s the only one we’ve got, and that’s what we’ve got to work with right now.”