Whitman-Walker Clinic
BEFORE
The Washington Free Clinic rented space in a Lutheran Church in Georgetown. The Free Clinic started and provided space for the Gay Men’s VD Clinic (GMVDC). Also in the 1970’s I helped Tom Ziebold started the Gay Council on Drinking Behavior (GCDB). Tom wanted a peer counseling volunteer group to help educate and provide counseling for our community. Then as now, by conservative estimate, one-third of GLBT people in the DC metro area have problems with alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and drug abuse. When Lambda Rising was on S Street NW, we used their loft for counseling.
One summer an old Army buddy who was also my first and my first ex visited town and thought he might have caught something. I went to the clinic with him as moral support. We were both so impressed that we offered to become volunteers. He got a call right away while apparently my number was lost. Eventually I called and joined a training class of three for medical screeners taught by a med student. Some time after that, the only GMVDC employee resigned. Dr. Tom Ziebold was hired as Director and psychology student Bill Carroll was hired as a half time employee. I had recently left a job. Since neither Tom nor Bill knew the clinic procedures, I was hired to help train Bill and eventually stayed on as the plot thickened so to speak.
BEGINNING
Over time, the GMVDC had become the tail wagging the Free Clinic dog. This was further complicated because the Lutheran Church wanted to remove the GMVDC from their property because the church ran a child day care center. Although the hours of operation of the day care and the clinic were never the same and although a clinic volunteer’s lover worked for the day care, the so-called Christians wanted us homosexuals out of their church for the sake of the children. It was out of this homophobic conflict that the idea of creating an umbrella organization came about. We would take four struggling volunteer groups and combine them under one administrative group and hopefully the sum would be greater than the parts. The four groups were GMVDC, GCDB, Gay Men’s Counseling Collective (GMCC) and a Women’s Group.
The Washington Free Clinic refused to allow the GMVDC to separate. They argued that the GMVDC medical records belonged to the Free Clinic. During a negotiation between the Free Clinic and GMVDC, we loaded up the records and moved them to our new location on 17th Street NW. Out of homophobia and our pulling a fast one, we started a new clinic.
NAME
It was decided early on that the clinic would have an identifiable Gay name, but to encourage closet cases to get tested and helped, the clinic would not have Gay in the name. Walt Whitman was the easy and obvious choice. He was readily identifiable as a Gay man and equally important he was a medical volunteer in Washington during the Civil War or War of Northern Aggression (Depending on where you’re from.).
That was fine until the woman demanded a woman’s name. We thought that was reasonable, but we were stumped until someone suggested Susan Walker. There was no evidence that she was a Lesbian, but she wore men’s clothing, held a man’s job (MD) and she won the Congressional Medal Honor (She is the only person to lose the Medal and then had the Medal of Honor restored.) The women were happy. Then the women demanded that the woman’s name should come first. They didn’t win that argument.
Thus was born Whitman-Walker Clinic.
LOGO
One discussion that literally took place several times a day with various volunteers was what to use for a clinic logo. Meanwhile a Gay man had started doing pen and ink sketches. He presented us with his sketch of the new clinic location. While logo discussions continued, I reduced to the sketch to several small sizes and as I created clinic forms and documents, starting adding the sketch. It took awhile, but eventually folks realized that we had a logo. When the clinic moved to 18th Street NW, I flipped the sketch negative, changed a few lines and we had another new logo.
CLOSING
After about one year, we held an afternoon meeting with the Clinic Board President, a wonderful volunteer and retired teacher and our 2 and a half employees. The Clinic was deeply in debt (under $10,000) and we had to close the clinic. The afternoon meeting was about how best to put a positive spin on closing to the Board of Director’s meeting that night. While listening to the discussion, I started rearranging the office furniture. At one point, Tom asked, “Philip, what the bleep are you doing?” I explained that I was listening and would speak up if I had anything to add. I then explained why and how I was rearranging the furniture. There was long pause and the discussions continued. I do not know if my “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” made any difference, but…. The presentation to the Board that night was, “We are deeply in debt and don’t know how we can get out of debt, but if Board members are willing to help, we are willing to keep trying.” I take seriously the suggestion that when you don’t know what to do, just keep trying and do the next dumb thing.
IRONY
For those who love the symmetry of life and irony, not that long ago a financially struggling Washington Free Clinic merged with and became a part of Whitman-Walker Clinic.
BEFORE
The Washington Free Clinic rented space in a Lutheran Church in Georgetown. The Free Clinic started and provided space for the Gay Men’s VD Clinic (GMVDC). Also in the 1970’s I helped Tom Ziebold started the Gay Council on Drinking Behavior (GCDB). Tom wanted a peer counseling volunteer group to help educate and provide counseling for our community. Then as now, by conservative estimate, one-third of GLBT people in the DC metro area have problems with alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and drug abuse. When Lambda Rising was on S Street NW, we used their loft for counseling.
One summer an old Army buddy who was also my first and my first ex visited town and thought he might have caught something. I went to the clinic with him as moral support. We were both so impressed that we offered to become volunteers. He got a call right away while apparently my number was lost. Eventually I called and joined a training class of three for medical screeners taught by a med student. Some time after that, the only GMVDC employee resigned. Dr. Tom Ziebold was hired as Director and psychology student Bill Carroll was hired as a half time employee. I had recently left a job. Since neither Tom nor Bill knew the clinic procedures, I was hired to help train Bill and eventually stayed on as the plot thickened so to speak.
BEGINNING
Over time, the GMVDC had become the tail wagging the Free Clinic dog. This was further complicated because the Lutheran Church wanted to remove the GMVDC from their property because the church ran a child day care center. Although the hours of operation of the day care and the clinic were never the same and although a clinic volunteer’s lover worked for the day care, the so-called Christians wanted us homosexuals out of their church for the sake of the children. It was out of this homophobic conflict that the idea of creating an umbrella organization came about. We would take four struggling volunteer groups and combine them under one administrative group and hopefully the sum would be greater than the parts. The four groups were GMVDC, GCDB, Gay Men’s Counseling Collective (GMCC) and a Women’s Group.
The Washington Free Clinic refused to allow the GMVDC to separate. They argued that the GMVDC medical records belonged to the Free Clinic. During a negotiation between the Free Clinic and GMVDC, we loaded up the records and moved them to our new location on 17th Street NW. Out of homophobia and our pulling a fast one, we started a new clinic.
NAME
It was decided early on that the clinic would have an identifiable Gay name, but to encourage closet cases to get tested and helped, the clinic would not have Gay in the name. Walt Whitman was the easy and obvious choice. He was readily identifiable as a Gay man and equally important he was a medical volunteer in Washington during the Civil War or War of Northern Aggression (Depending on where you’re from.).
That was fine until the woman demanded a woman’s name. We thought that was reasonable, but we were stumped until someone suggested Susan Walker. There was no evidence that she was a Lesbian, but she wore men’s clothing, held a man’s job (MD) and she won the Congressional Medal Honor (She is the only person to lose the Medal and then had the Medal of Honor restored.) The women were happy. Then the women demanded that the woman’s name should come first. They didn’t win that argument.
Thus was born Whitman-Walker Clinic.
LOGO
One discussion that literally took place several times a day with various volunteers was what to use for a clinic logo. Meanwhile a Gay man had started doing pen and ink sketches. He presented us with his sketch of the new clinic location. While logo discussions continued, I reduced to the sketch to several small sizes and as I created clinic forms and documents, starting adding the sketch. It took awhile, but eventually folks realized that we had a logo. When the clinic moved to 18th Street NW, I flipped the sketch negative, changed a few lines and we had another new logo.
CLOSING
After about one year, we held an afternoon meeting with the Clinic Board President, a wonderful volunteer and retired teacher and our 2 and a half employees. The Clinic was deeply in debt (under $10,000) and we had to close the clinic. The afternoon meeting was about how best to put a positive spin on closing to the Board of Director’s meeting that night. While listening to the discussion, I started rearranging the office furniture. At one point, Tom asked, “Philip, what the bleep are you doing?” I explained that I was listening and would speak up if I had anything to add. I then explained why and how I was rearranging the furniture. There was long pause and the discussions continued. I do not know if my “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” made any difference, but…. The presentation to the Board that night was, “We are deeply in debt and don’t know how we can get out of debt, but if Board members are willing to help, we are willing to keep trying.” I take seriously the suggestion that when you don’t know what to do, just keep trying and do the next dumb thing.
IRONY
For those who love the symmetry of life and irony, not that long ago a financially struggling Washington Free Clinic merged with and became a part of Whitman-Walker Clinic.
