When a transgender person arrives at the front doors of Margie’s Closet, Monika Veliz is there to welcome them home.
“I like to say that first thing,” she says, waving a manicured hand toward a rack of coats and dresses. “People should know that they’re really safe here and that they’re with people who care about them.”
For many LGBTQ+ people, dressing in a way that makes them feel like themselves is often the first of many steps toward living a more authentic life. For transgender people in particular, choosing and wearing clothing outside the constraints of assigned gender norms can be a deeply emotional process — and can even come at a personal or professional cost.
“Margie’s Closet is a safe, affirming space for trans, non-binary and gender expansive people to come and shop for affordable clothing,” Veliz said. “It’s hard to explain, but the clothing is just one aspect.”
Now all the safety that Margie’s Closet provides is suddenly in danger.
Unable to afford rising rent costs, Veliz — who runs both Margie’s Closet and its larger, parent organization, Margie’s Hope — said the small non-profit will need to rake in thousands of dollars in donations to secure a new physical location once their current lease expires.
“Really, [Margie’s Closet] is the beginnings of a community center, and now this space is in danger,” she said. “If the community doesn’t step in, we just won’t be here.”
‘The most magical part of our story’
Since the program was founded, Margie’s Closet has operated solely based on donations.
Every week, Veliz spends up to 55 hours welcoming shoppers to the non-profit retail space at the front door. Then, she crafts a personal shopping experience that is often life-changing, particularly for newly out trans and gender expansive people.
Among the racks of vintage clothing and carefully arranged jewelry, there lies an experience that cannot be bought or sold.
“I see dysphoria melt into euphoria,” said Veliz, who is transgender herself.
“Over the last few years, I have cried so much in that store with other people,” she said. “People who are just happy when they put on a binder and look into a mirror and see what they’ve been feeling. It instantly changes their lives.”
“There has never been a place like this — ever,” she added. “Not in my lifetime.”
Day after day, Veliz welcomed trans people and their support systems. Over time, she noticed a larger network of support growing among shoppers.
“Trans folks would come in and they would spend all day in the store talking, exchanging resources, making new friends,” she said. “It became about so much more than the clothes.”
Often, shoppers discovered they lived within blocks of one another.
“It’s unbelievable that people live in such close proximity to each other and they can often feel like they’re going through transition or trying to figure out this big gender question all by themselves,” Veliz said.
“It just took this place for them to converge and to discover one another,” she added. “That is magical — and that will continue to be the most magical part of our story.”
‘It has completely shattered this organization’
Currently, Margie’s closet is housed at 1384 W 117th St in Cleveland, close to the border of neighboring Lakewood and one block east of Studio West 117 — a 300,000 square foot, multi-use LGBTQ+ entertainment and lifestyle complex.
Originally, Veliz said Studio West 117 founders Daniel Budish and Betsy Figgie planned to house Margie’s Closet at the former Phantasy Nightclub building.
However, when the historic building’s renovations were not completed on time, Veliz said Studio West offered an alternative location to house the store: “They said when the Phantasy building is complete in the third or fourth quarter of 2022, we’ll move [Margie’s Closet] to the Phantasy building and then the lease will just continue.”
Before signing a lease with Studio West, Veliz said her predecessor — Margie’s Hope co-founder Jacob Nash — kept clothing donations in storage units, retrieving them each time the organization held a pop-up shopping event.
Eager for a brick-and-mortar space to house donations and welcome and support transgender people more consistently, Margie’s Closet moved into the temporary space.
Nearly three years later, Veliz said the small non-profit can no longer afford to pay the rent, which she said has increased dramatically since the original lease was signed.
“It has completely shattered this organization,” she said. “We are default on our rent because there’s nothing that we can do about it. Eventually, we are going to lose this space if someone doesn’t intervene.”
“[Studio West 117] has been trying to rectify the situation,” Veliz said. “But I don’t think they understand how serious this is.”
“It’s not my job to sift through the craziness that was happening [at Studio West 117],” she added. “It is my job to vanguard the safe space for trans people and try to figure out how to start making provisions for us to be somewhere else if we’re not in this particular space.”
‘Beg, borrow and steal’
After consulting an attorney, Veliz said she was told the lease was “extremely predatory.” Until the lease expires, the attorney advised Veliz to “beg, borrow and steal,” in order to make rent payments.
“My job is to protect trans people,” Veliz added. “You would think that because LGBTQ+ people are all under the same flag that everything is fine, but we have to treat this space gingerly.”
“The only thing I do have is the store. There’s a common misconception that I’m fighting because I’m the president of this organization,” she said. “I’m fighting because I am a trans woman who wants a safe space for myself.”
Currently, Veliz is running a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $21,000.
“We humbly ask our community members for financial help, so that the community continues to have this small reprieve from a world which seems so set against them in legislation, their jobs, and even in their living environments,” she wrote in the fundraiser’s description.
Veliz also shared that the amount is intended to cover rent until the lease expires, along with the fees and deposits necessary to secure a new physical location.
Broadway actor and performer Aidan Wharton is also set to help raise additional funding for relocation and future rent stability as part of an ongoing fundraising effort he calls The Queer Non-profit Project.
While on tour with the 2023 Broadway production of Girl From the North Country, Wharton created the project to support local LGBTQ+ non-profits at each stop along the way. While in Cleveland, he visited Margie’s Closet in-person with fellow castmates and has encouraged audience members to make direct contributions via PayPal on his personal website and social media accounts.
‘It’s our job to save it’
Veliz — who was named a top local clothing designer by Cleveland Scene Magazine — never planned on becoming acting president of a non-profit organization.
She began her transition as a high school student, and has lived for nearly 30 years in Northeast Ohio as an out, Black, transgender woman. From her own lived experience, Veliz knew her presence alone held real power — power she could use to help other trans people survive and succeed.
Once, while Veliz sat behind a desk near the front doors of Margie’s Closet, a person with a long beard and tattooed arms entered the glass foyer.
“I realized this is a trans woman,” Veliz said. “I ask her right away, ‘What are your pronouns?’ And despite what she looked like, she said, ‘Well, I would like to be called, she/her. I don’t live that yet, but I would like to be called she/her today.’”
Around one year later, the shopper returned.
“She comes back in and she is on HRT,” Veliz said. “She just gives me a hug and thanks me.”
“That was an eye opener for me of what this space is,” Veliz explained. “This space is transformative. It is essential to propelling trans people further into their transition, becoming who they were meant to be. This space is just as essential as gender affirming medicine.”
“There is no other safe space like this specifically for trans and non-binary people. So as a community with power, it’s our job to save it.” 🔥
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