The Callen-Lorde Community Health Center is named after two beloved activists. Michael Callen (1955–1993) was a singer and composer. In 1982, he was diagnosed with AIDS. He became an activist, making people aware of the growing health crisis. With Peter Allen, he composed the song “Love Don’t Need a Reason,” and he also founded the Flirtations, an LGBT a cappella singing group.

Audre Lorde (1934–1992), the daughter of Grenadian parents, grew up in Harlem. She was a poet and prose writer. Her book The Cancer Journals, published in 1980, narrated her experiences as a breast-cancer patient. She was also a librarian and educator who became a leader in the lesbian activists community. From 1991 until her death, she was New York State’s Poet Laureate.

In its mission statement, the clinic states that the “Callen-Lorde Community Health Center provides sensitive, quality health care and related services primarily to New York’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities — in all their diversity — regardless of ability to pay.”

The HOTT program (Health Outreach to Teens) is a primary-care medical facility for young people between the ages of thirteen and twenty-four. It specializes in mental and medical health care, sexually transmitted infection screening, HIV care, and transgender care. Teens meet in a youth-only medical suite or in a medical van that travels to areas throughout New York City.

Amelie Davidson, one of the two social worker–therapists at HOTT, deals with the mental health part of the clinic, where people are seen for a variety of concerns, including depression, anxiety, relationship issues, social isolation, coping with a new diagnosis, and gender-related issues. Amelie says, “In terms of transgender care, our intention is to create a space where young people can come at any stage of their transition process, get correct information, and be cared for and feel safe.”

A person must be eighteen or older to be given hormone shots at Callen-Lorde. Although younger teen clients are able to work with HOTT therapists, they are referred to various hospitals for their hormone shots.