From the HIV epidemic to monkeypox, Linda Estabrook looks back on 34 years of serving and advocating for Hartford’s LGBTQ community – Hartford Courant

A lot has changed since Linda Estabrook was first named executive director of the Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Collective in 1989.

And a lot has stayed the same.

Estabrook’s own position with the HGLHC, which was started in 1983 by health professionals who volunteered their time, shifted from part-time to full-time.

“If you go back to when I started, we had a $50,000 budget, said Estabrook. “Now we have over $1,000,000 budget. The staff is now 11 people when it used to be one.”

Estabrook has witnessed numerous health crises, breakthroughs and innovations in her nearly three and a half decades at HGLHC, a licensed outpatient medical and dental clinic with offices in Hartford and Manchester. She’s also seen changes in the community the health collective serves and changes in how that community is perceived.

“I started in 1989,” she said. “The circumstances then, in particular with HIV, were such that we could test people and could tell them if they were positive or negative. Then that could be followed up with prevention. The difficulty or the sadness around that was that if they tested positive, there was very little treatment, just sad news. It was awful news to hear and awful news to share.

“Better treatments came about. Now, people who were young then and planning a short life in the 1980s and ‘90s are still alive. In recent years, with medications like PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis), more and more folks are using that and it’s a world of difference. We continue to have people living their lives.”

Estabrook recently announced that she planned to retire from her position on June 30, 2023.

“I’ve been preparing for that for years, she said. “There are a whole assortment of professional and personal reasons I’m doing this now. I certainly wasn’t going to leave in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. It’s been a rollercoaster ride.”

The mission has always involved both health and the general well-being of the community. Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Collective clients “have a place here,” she said. “We have activities and programs that build community.”

She recalls that when news broke of the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, in which 49 people were killed and 53 wounded at the LGBTQ venue, “we’d had a big meeting planned. We changed it right then, to get together with people so we could all talk.”

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The health collective is used to switching plans at short notice when fresh needs arise, whether it’s a tragic incident or the beginning of a potential long-term health crisis.

“With monkey pox, we didn’t wait for others to tell us what to do,” she said. “We jumped in with messaging and testing and prevention. COVID and monkeypox have meaning to HIV patients. They’re reminiscent of what they went through 30-plus years ago.”

But the organizational challenges can be daunting.

“In July,” Estabrook says, “we went from 26 to 178 clients during the early days of monkeypox. We had a few days to create a program. It was reminiscent of COVID — setting protocols, cleaning …”

The HGLHC also continues to play a special role serving clients who may not be comfortable bringing their personal health concerns elsewhere. The organization was founded on being compassionate and nonjudgmental.

“That’s still the case,” Estabrook said. “I was just talking to someone who needed to get a mammogram. If we hadn’t been able to talk with her, she might not be with us today. She didn’t have to deal with any prejudice or stigma about her being a lesbian.”

Asked whether it was also frustrating that an institution like Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Collective is still needed for clients, especially those in the transgender community who feel they can’t be served by other health institutions, Estabrook said, “That’s very interesting to contemplate,” noting there have been some heartening changes at mainstream health centers.

“There was that recent article in the Courant about Hartford HealthCare and how they’re dealing with stigma. They’re not the only ones. Will they replace what we’re doing? We work with them. We refer people to those programs all the time. Our staff is informed and aware of all the resources that are out there.”

At the same time, she still sees a lot of bias and prejudice.

“You can call me a snowflake, but that’s hurtful to people,” said Estabrook, who still intends to keep active as an advocate for LGBTQ issues.

Under Estabrook’s leadership, the HGLHC has served the LGBTQ community not just with health care needs but in the harder to define, but no less crucial, areas of social support, community building and activism.

Estabrook was the executive director when the collective started holding a Queer Prom in 1995. The 27th annual Queer Prom was held in April.

“It was close to the first one in the country,” she said.

“Even during the pandemic, we did something. Our message has always been ‘Be well, be yourself, you be you.’ Everyone is dancing, talking, dressed in ways where they feel comfortable.”

Another annual celebratory gathering, HGLHC’s gala fundraiser One Big Event, marked its 20th anniversary on Nov. 12.

Estabrook says the collective counts on One Big Event to raise 20% to 25% of the funds it needs “just to keep what we have now.

“There’s so much planning,” she said. “So much attention to detail. It’s important that the guests have a memorable evening and it’s important that we raise these funds. We get funding from other places, we get government grants, but they don’t cover rent and so many other things.”

After all, nonprofit organizations, she explained, can barely be stabilized at the best of times.

“We still have to constantly apply for the funding we have, and you can’t always count on it being there. One government entity we receive grants from just cut 55% from their agency funding across the board.”

Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.

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