Overview:
The CEO of Resource Center, Cece Cox, emphasizes the need for LGBTQ+ people to have access to gender-affirming and available healthcare in 2025. Resource Center, a nonprofit organization in Dallas, is creating a health hub called Resource Center Health to consolidate their services and provide primary medical care, food, and hot meals to their clients. Cox also stresses the importance of looking out for one's LGBTQ+ friends, coworkers, employees, and family members during this tumultuous political time. Cox is inspired by the pure intention of Resource Center: creating a community free of barriers and hatred.
In 2025, LGBTQ+ people need gender-affirming and available healthcare, says CEO of Resource Center Cece Cox. After over 30 years spent advocating for the LGBTQ+ community, Cox is still heavily dedicated to her mission of empowering and educating LGBTQ+ people in Dallas with her team offering health services to more than 60,000 people annually, including those living with HIV/AIDS.
The nonprofit’s newest venture to further the rights and empowerment of LGBTQ+ persons is a health hub called Resource Center Health.
“We did an extensive study showing that our community is either not having a good experience with healthcare because they can’t find it, or they are afraid they will be discriminated against, or they have been discriminated against, or they’re just not seeking care at all because of your cost,” Cox explained when asked about the need to create Resource Center Health.
Resource Center Health Goals
This new project comes not long after the completed construction of Oak Lawn Place last July and aims to have operations set up in May.
“We will be consolidating our services, which will be a much better outcome for our clients and for people that need primary medical care, who are also seeking our food pantry and our hot meal program,” Cox elaborated.
Resource Center Health will also offer mental health counseling services.
Presently, healthcare and affordable housing are two great needs currently facing the LGBTQ+ community. Resource Center is already fervently working to increase the amount of affordable housing for all Dallas residents with their facility Oak Lawn Place.
“It has 84 units that are apartments of affordable housing, meaning the rents range from about $526 to $1,400 [for] a two-bedroom. It’s way below the market rate average in Dallas, so that’s part of what defines it as affordable,” Cox explained. “It filled up in three months. It now has a waiting list that’s longer than there are units in there.”
Laws and attitudes have changed that are harming the community right now. That is a thing to be aware of, also for businesses and employers, to understand that a lot of queer people right now are experiencing a lot of disabilities.
cece cox, ceo, resource center
Homelessness in adults aged 50 and above is on the rise, and Resource Center’s Oaklawn place is actively combating this issue.
Other issues impacting the LGBTQ+ community have been inflamed due to the current political administration’s repeated advances to diminish and dampen the light of such a diverse community. Cox explained that the Trump administration’s antics such as the false issuing of passports to transgender individuals is a sign of more sinister actions that could come to face the community.
“[Members of the LGBTQ+ community] don’t know if they’re going to be able to travel like they used to. Because in our community, passports aren’t being recognized for transgender people, identity documents are not being issued in some instances for trans folk that match someone’s identity.”
Bad Politics Produce Bad Policies
President Trump issued a new, very exclusive definition of sexes recognized by the federal government on his first day in office. This order directly aims to erase transgender people, and has already affected transgender citizens trying to get the correct personal information on their passports.
The stereotypical nuclear family unit that is praised by this administration is not achievable for many LGBTQ+ families. Cox explained another barrier the community faces is how heterosexual couples and children have an easier time holding on to their civil liberties and legal privileges than LGBTQ+ people.
“In a heterosexual marriage, the dividing spouse would receive all social security benefits. So money is flowing into the household. That was just one of over 1000 rights and benefits that come with marriage that queer couples were not able to access because the laws of our country told us we couldn’t do that,” Cox elaborated. “Also, we statistically do not have as many children, and so our safety net is different […] there’s a lot of vulnerability in our population as we age.”
Cox also stressed the importance of looking out for one’s LGBTQ+ friends, coworkers, employees and family members during this tumultuous political time.
“Laws and attitudes have changed that are harming the community right now. That is a thing to be aware of, also for businesses and employers, to understand that a lot of queer people right now are experiencing a lot of disabilities. So to the extent that a workplace has been supportive by either having a pride employee resource group or supporting queer organizations or making donations in the queer community, does need to continue,” Cox explained.
Staying the Course
But Cox isn’t planning on backing down, in fact, her team at Resource Center has many events and programming underway to increase gender-affirming care and further protect LGBTQ+ citizens in the North Texas area.
Cox is inspired by the pure intention of Resource Center: creating community. As a young girl, Cox found it difficult to establish her own sense of belonging as an LGBTQ+ youth growing up without a corresponding community. Instead of feeling defeated, she was inspired to create a community free of barriers and hatred.
She keeps staying the course for many reasons, one of them being a brutal history of systemic discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.
“[Members of the LGBTQ+ community] don’t feel safe. So that’s one thing to be aware of as a human being, that you know, sometimes some of us are able to walk around with a certain amount of privilege, and we wonder, ‘Well, why is somebody scared or defensive or thinking the way they are?’ Well, it might be because they really are scared.”
In these times of battling bigotry, Cox assures LGBTQ+ people that her desire to create a safe, welcoming space for the community has not wavered. Cox has been through tumult before, citing her experience on the frontlines of uncertain moments in the LGBTQ+ community in the past.
“I feel them myself as a queer person, I think about them in our community, I have experienced the upheaval and the loss of life of the early eight days of the AIDS pandemic in the 80s, and extending into the 90s, when the medication no medications were available,” Cox elaborated.
Cox encourages LGBTQ+ persons and allies alike to stay focused and stay involved in their local communities.
The Importance of Hope
“We feel as if we’re floundering right now, because the chaos being created around us is a strategy, and it’s making it hard to know where to focus, where to go, how to devote our energy and what we should be doing. It’ll calm down, and I know we’re going to create [something] out of it, because as a queer community, we’ve done that before, and we’re capable of doing it.”
Resource Center also hosts a variety of events for volunteers and patrons alike. Gaybingo is a popular event featuring prizes, drag performances, and donation opportunities hosted the third Saturday of every month at 6 p.m.
Over 1,200 volunteers walk through the doors of the Resource Center each year. Cox says they are always open to volunteers- students, adults, and work groups are all welcome. Volunteer for Resource Center’s food pantry, fundraising events, youth and family programs, and more here.