Bay Windows - August 6, 2009
Hannah Clay Wareham

The medical organization opened its new doors on March 30. The 10-story, 100,000-square-foot building is viewed as "a symbol of our community. It's the largest building built by any organization with 'LGBT' in its mission statement anywhere in the world," Boswell said. Since its inception nearly 40 years ago, the organization has ensured equal access to quality healthcare for traditionally underserved communities, including the LGBT population.

A blank, white wall in the Ansin Building greets Fenway Health's 13,000 patients, of whom 1,300 are HIV positive. During a recent tour, Associate Director of Communications Christopher Viveiros explained that it would soon become the organization's Campaign Wall, complete with lists of donor names.

In the elevator, a Fenway Health employee wearing a bright turquoise shirt ducked in before the door closed, carrying a bag labeled "BIOHAZARD." Viveiros eyed the bag. "Ew, biohazard," he said jokingly, pulling up his lip.

"What?" the man asked. "This is just my lunch!"

The close relationships among Fenway Health staff represent part of the appeal of its new home. "[The new building] allows us to bring our staff together under the same roof, which greatly facilitates collaboration," Boswell said. This notion of shared space is something new and exciting for employees of the organization.

Fenway Health's former residence, 7 Haviland St., is a crowded, 19,000-square-foot brownstone. Very little light gets into the building, and Haviland Street seems an alleyway. The small size and limited medical technologies created roadblocks to cooperation.

In contrast, the large, new Ansin Building facilitates medical and scientific collaboration, as well as bonding between staff members. (Viveiros admitted he was looking forward to judging the upcoming staff baking competition.) Almost every aspect of the new building has been engineered to provide feelings of safety and a sense of belonging. A Japanese sensibility prevails upon the structure and design of the new building, and imparts an aura of serenity and healing. The Boylston Street-facing wall in the lobby of each floor is painted red so that at night, from outside, the building resembles an illuminated Japanese lantern. The carpets are reminiscent of raked sand in a Zen garden.

Fenway Health's conference center occupies the building's ninth and tenth floors. Boswell sees the conference center as "filling the gaps" of an as-yet-absent LGBT community center. "We'd like to go beyond just medicine or healthcare," he explains. For example, the recent 25th Annual Boston LGBT Film Festival used the space to screen two films: "It's My Life: A South Asian Queer Story in America," local filmmaker Sarav Chitambaram's debut documentary; and "Out Late," a documentary about the LGBT Aging Project.

The social opportunities presented by the new building and its conference center represent "a symbol of commitment to the LGBT community," Boswell said.

Not only does the new building provide opportunities for members of Boston's LGBT community to connect and interact, it also provides the latest in LGBT health, from alternative insemination to rigorous HIV prevention programs, a staple of Fenway Health's philosophy from the very beginning. Its 2001 formation of The Fenway Institute, an LGBT health, research, and advocacy-based organization, marked a turning point, a moment when the broader medical community began to regard LGBT health as a medical class that required unique attention, research, and funding.

Twenty years earlier, in 1981, Fenway Health was one of the first medical organizations to lead a community-based response to the HIV epidemic, then known as GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency). During the early 80's, despite "dealing with some very sick people, it was difficult to get a lot of interest among federal funding agencies," Boswell said, "with relatively little interest from the [National Institutes of Health]." Luckily, the NIH's disinterest didn't last. "After the virus was identified," Boswell said, "it became clear that it was a public health issue."

Fenway Health began expanding its work with HIV prevention in '81 while simultaneously caring for people with the virus. "Many providers of healthcare were not that interested" when it came to the patients, Boswell said. "We saw on a daily basis the ravages of an epidemic unchecked and we had the desire to play a meaningful role in the prevention of the carnage."

Fenway Health's response to the epidemic was significant and lasting. Its involvement with advocacy and HIV research led to its 1994 selection by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases as one of eight sites recruiting participants for the first clinical trials of an HIV vaccine. "You need to be able to test [vaccines] within the community," Boswell said. "We could easily move into that role."

Fenway Health is now proud to be one of only three U.S. sites working with the first PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis, an antiretroviral medication designed to prevent transmission to uninfected people) study conducted among MSM (men who have sex with men). According to Boswell, the Fenway Institute's current HIV-related work "focuses primarily on prevention issues," such as vaccines and behavioral steps to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. "[Prevention] is a key piece of what we do," he said.

The nature of Fenway Health's continued involvement and historic work with LGBT health organically renders the Ansin Building a hub for the LGBT community, a space for collaboration, celebration, and medical achievements. The new space is a structural representation of Fenway's approach to the health of the LGBT community: open, accepting, and eternally hopeful.

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