Local: Clinic revises mission

Local: Clinic revises mission

Washington Blade - March 30, 2001
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

During the past several years, the number of Gay male, Lesbian, bisexual, and transgender clients receiving health-related services from Whitman-Walker Clinic has increased, just as it has nearly every year since a group of Gay volunteers founded the Clinic in 1973 as a Gay community health facility, officials said. But since the AIDS epidemic erupted in the early 1980s, and Whitman-Walker emerged as the D.C. area's leading provider of private health care for people with HIV and AIDS, the number of heterosexual clients receiving services at the Clinic has increased dramatically. Now, Clinic officials point out, Whitman-Walker's overall client population is divided almost evenly between Gays and heterosexuals.

Partially because of this demographic makeup, the Clinic's 41-member board of directors voted in February to change the Clinic's historic mission statement that defined Whitman-Walker as a "non-profit, volunteer-based, Lesbian and Gay community health organization serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area." The revised mission statement says, "Whitman-Walker is a non-profit community-based health organization serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region." The new statement adds, "Established by and for the Gay and Lesbian community, our clinic is comprised of diverse volunteers and staff who provide or facilitate the delivery of high quality, comprehensive, accessible health care and community services. Whitman-Walker is especially committed to ending the suffering of all those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS."

"It is still a Gay and Lesbian clinic," said Whitman-Walker board chairperson Jannette Williams. "But because of HIV and AIDS and how it has now affected more of the minority community of the metropolitan area and the heterosexual community, we felt that our mission statement should be in line with what we do."

Whitman-Walker Executive Director Cornelius Baker said the Clinic will continue, and will expand, if necessary, all of the Clinic's existing programs for Gay men and Lesbians. Among them are the Gay and Lesbian Hotline, the Gay Men's V.D. Clinic, the Gay Men's Peer Counseling program, AIDS prevention and outreach initiatives aimed at Gay and bisexual men, the Lesbian Health Center, the Breast Health Initiative, and other Lesbian-oriented programs, including one providing assistance to Lesbians considering having children. Baker said Whitman-Walker will also continue to sponsor the city's annual Gay Pride festival and parade and will continue to work with other groups in the creation of a D.C. Gay community center.

Baker pointed to the latest data collected on the Clinic's clients, which show that 40 percent identify themselves as Gay/Lesbian, 40 percent as heterosexual, 8 percent as bisexual, 2 percent as "queer," 3 percent "other," and 7 percent declined to disclose their sexual orientation. A recent survey of the Clinic's clients shows that 67 percent identify themselves as male, 28 percent female, 3 percent transgender, and 2 percent declined to identify their gender. Fifty-two percent identify as African American, 29 percent as white, 10 percent as Latino, 2 percent as Asian/Pacific Islander, 1 percent Native American, 2 percent Continental African, 2 percent "other," and 2 percent declined to disclose their race.

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