The mission statement of the DeFrank Center is to provide "community, leadership, advocacy, services and support to the Silicon Valley’s LGBTQ+ People and their Allies.
[2] [3] The Billy DeFrank Lesbian and Gay Community Center opened on March 1, 1981, in a two-room storefront on Keyes St. in south downtown San Jose, a year after Santa Clara County residents voted to repeal ordinances extending housing and employment protections to lesbians and gay men.
[4] The DeFrank Center was the meeting place for several activist groups, include High Tech Gays, which brought the High Tech Gays v. Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office suit in 1984 arguing that the U.S. Department of Defense should not deny security clearances to applicants who were known or thought to be homosexual.
[5] The DeFrank Center was also one of the original meeting places of Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee (BAYMEC), a PAC that advocates for the civil rights of LGBTQ people.
[9] From all around the nine counties of the Bay Area, the DeFrank Center provides resources to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of all ages and backgrounds.