Cutting the ribbon on HELP LGBT Health and Wellness Center’s new facility

Two of HELP’s three co-founders, Dr. Rita Cotterly and Memie Hardie, at the grand opening

The HELP Center for LGBT Health and Wellness was born in 1994, founded by Mimi Hardie, Sister Mary Fulbright and Dr. Rita Cotterly, out of the need to not just provide services for Tarrant County residents affected by HIV/AIDS, but to also provide education to fight the discrimination and blind bigotry in the population as a whole as well as in the government to which they should have been able to turn for help.

As the years passed, attitudes toward the HIV/AIDS community and the LGBTQ community changed, softened, grew more tolerant. But discrimination and bigotry remained. In fact, in 2017 when HELP — by this time led by DeeJay Johannessen as CEO and beginning to offer medical care as well as preventative services — announced its intention to open its first is Arlington facility, near downtown at 200 E. Division St.,  some of the Arlington City Council members made no secret of their opposition to the move.

But progress marches on. In the four years since, Arlington has grown and changed, as has the Arlington city government.

Last week on Dec. 1, the staff and supporters of HELP turned out in force to celebrate World AIDS Day by cutting the ribbon on HELP’s new, larger Arlington facility, this one located at 602 E. South Street. The new facility is dedicated to HELP’s three founders, and two of them — Hardie and Cotterly — were there for the grand opening, as were Arlington Mayor Jim Ross and Councilmembers Raul Gonzalez, Ruby Faye Woolridge and Dr. Barbara Odom-Wesley.

Johanessen noted that this year Arlington scored 100 percent on Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index, and Ross spoke of the council’s unanimous vote last June approving a resolution in recognition of LGBTQ Pride Month. A group of residents approached him, Ross recalled, telling him that recognizing Pride Month was not part of their vision nor, they believed, that of the majority of the city’s residents’ vision for Arlington.

Ross listened to their concerns, but, in the end, he told them his vision for the city was different from theirs, and that he believes more residents agree with him than with them.

Johannessen also noted that Mayor Ross has recently established an LGBTQ advisory committee. Johannessen  is a member, although he admitted his missed the committee’s first meeting because he was finalizing  the grand opening of the new HELP facility.

HELP’s new facility, located in the former South Side Elementary school, was funded in part by a $383,750 grant from the Arlington Tomorrow Foundation. In addition to office space and a clinic providing PrEP, testing for HIV and syphilis, counseling, and other health services, the new HELP Center will contain a 2,500 square foot community space for meetings and events — the first physical home for the LGBTQ community in Arlington.

Below are photos of the grand opening ceremonies and ribbon cutting.

(Photos by Chad Mantooth and Tammye Nash)

— Tammye Nash