Washington Blade - February 20, 2009
Amy Cavanaugh

To recognize their work following an abrupt Clinic exit in December, community leaders have teamed up to thank Hawkins and Chinn, both of whom are lesbians, with an event tonight at the Covenant Baptist Church in their honor.

Mark Meinke, founder of the Rainbow History Project, said his group is the lead sponsor for the event and other organizations, such as the D.C. Center and Transgender Health Empowerment, are helping.

"Last December, when I heard that Barbara and Pat had been terminated by Whitman-Walker, I was in touch with some people from the Max Robinson Center advisory board, which I had been on for three or four years," he said. "ABilly [S. Jones-Hennin] and I were emailing about wanting to do something to show our appreciation of Pat and Barbara à and it sort of grew from there."

ABilly S. Jones-Hennin, who serves on the Max Robinson Center's advisory board, said the event came together as a grassroots effort.

"The feeling was that it was a disservice to Pat and Barbara to not have given them at least some sort of celebration as a way of honoring their service," he said. "To just give them two weeks notice and say goodbye felt cold, and we felt like they deserved more than that."

Meinke said that he's expecting between 100 and 150 people to attend, and that anyone is welcome. "The point of the event is to not let Barbara and Pat feel that the community doesn't appreciate them," he said. "Both of them have been such leaders in HIV and AIDS support, prevention and community services. It's hard to imagine the HIV/AIDS scene without them."

Meinke said that the Covenant Baptist Church was the original location of the Max Robinson Center, so it seemed an appropriate place to hold the celebration, which is expected to include speeches from D.C. Council members Jim Graham and David Catania; Carlene Cheatam, one of the founding members of the D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Men & Women; and gay activist Phil Pannell.

Chinn and Hawkins told the Blade that they were touched by the efforts made in their honor. "There's a great deal of emotion stirring within me," Chinn said. "It's hard for me to conceive that in the community so many people think so much of the work that I take for granted. I put it in a category of doing my job and that they think it's worth recognizing is really humbling."

Hawkins expressed similar feelings. She said that the event was "helping a lot with healing," because the layoff was "not the way I pictured my leaving the Clinic."

"It's such an emotional thing that people chose to do this for us, and it's extremely meaningful that it came from the community, and from so many different parts of the community," she said.

Chinn, who has not found a new job, said that she is "making contacts, networking and trying to determine the path that the rest of [her] working life will take."

She said she is exploring the possibility of doing some consulting work, and that "nothing is off the table."

"I want to stay in HIV [related work] and I think I still have something to contribute," Chinn said. "I still have a little bit left in me and I'm committed to this, so I'm going to try to find the best match."

Hawkins joined the D.C. Center board earlier this year, and said that she is working on issues relating to seniors and HIV/AIDS social services. Hawkins has also been seeing patients for psychological services and plans to do some consulting work for federal agencies.

"Advocacy is not going to stop for me," she said. "It's what I've done all my life, so I'm not going to stop now. I'm just going to do it in a different vehicle."

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