LA County Cuts Funding for STI Testing and Treatment at West Hollywood LGBT Clinic

The Los Angeles LGBT Center, which resides in the heart of West Hollywood, has been forced to reduce access to STI testing and treatment following a dispute with the Los Angeles County over funding.

Darrel Cummings, the Center's chief of staff, announced in WEHOville, "It is with a great deal of regret that I inform you that within the next week, due to broken promises about appropriate funding by the County of Los Angeles, the Center will be forced to reduce access to our free sexually transmitted disease (STD) services at both McDonald/Wright facility and at Center WeHo."

"After more than a year of conversation with the County and after repeated promises made, we now have learned that the County will not pay the costs of testing and treatment services for all the work we are doing," Cummings said.

"Last fiscal year alone, the Center was forced to redirect more than $1.1 million from other programs and services to cover the costs that the County now refuses to pay. Since then, we have continued to incur significant financial losses because we have been told that a solution would be forthcoming. It has not and it appears now that it will not."

Cummings concluded that he will continue fighting to restore the Center's STI services.