LGBTQ+ History Month

LGBTQ+ History Month is an important annual event recognising the history of LGBTQ+ civil rights movements, celebrating how far we have come in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality and reflecting on the discrimination that many people in the UK and around the world still face today for their sexual orientation or gender identity.

LGBTQ+ History Month 2025 is marking its 20^th anniversary and this year’s theme is Activism and Social Change. This aims to celebrate LGBT+ people who have been activists and helped shape and create social change, advancing society for everyone.

There are many different approaches to activism:

• Protests and rallies
• Campaigns—letter writing and social media
• Boycotts and direct action
• Collaboration and education
• Art and music
• Literature and poetry
• Theatre, film, comedy and dance
• Crafts from banners to zines
• Living openly

For more information about the theme, including resources for the month, visit the Schools OUT page.

Spotlighting our staff

We are spotlighting members of staff at the Trust who demonstrate activism both within and outside their roles.

Our history: staff and clinics

Dr Adam Lawrence

Dr Lawrence was appointed to St Stephen’s Hospital in 1972 as the first consultant in genito-urinary medicine, where he established a new genito-urinary service. Subsequently, this service was well placed to respond to the emerging HIV epidemic and Dr Lawrence soon became at the forefront of developing services for people with HIV and AIDS. By 1977, he had attracted so many patients to the clinics based at St Stephen’s Hospital that a full-time clinic, called the John Hunter Clinic, was opened in May 1980.

However, from the outset this service grew and was quickly overstretched, even before the recognition in 1981 of the immune deficiency syndrome subsequently known as AIDS, then HIV disease. He referred a patient who had developed a wasting syndrome to Brian Gazzard in 1980. This was recognised as one of the earliest cases of AIDS in London.

Adam Lawrence developed extensive clinical liaisons with colleagues in other specialties to manage the complications not only of HIV but also other sexually transmitted diseases. He, along with colleagues, embraced the changes required to cope with a rapidly evolving specialty. This continued over time, leading to St Stephen’s and then Chelsea and Westminster Hospital becoming a major centre for managing HIV and all aspects of sexual health.

A counselling room in the John Hunter Clinic, the Lawrence Room, was named after him in his honour. Dr Lawrence passed away in November 2022, leaving behind a legacy of major importance to the development of HIV and sexual health services in London.

Dr Simon Mansfield

Dr Simon Mansfield was appointed as the UK’s first consultant in community HIV medicine in 1990. He devoted himself to achieving a seamless service between the hospital and the statutory and voluntary sectors providing community care. He was a tenacious fighter for patients’ rights and for better facilities and care for people with HIV infection.

He was passionately committed to HIV prevention work, initially through the Gay Men’s Health Education Group at the Terrence Higgins Trust and subsequently as a founder member of Gay Men Fighting AIDS.

Dr Mansfield lived courageously with the same infection as his patients and passed away in April 1993. His pioneering contribution to the development of services for people with HIV continues to be valued and recognised today.

A meeting and training room in the St Stephen’s Centre, the Simon Mansfield Room, was named after him in his honour.

Dr Brian Gazzard

Dr Brian Gazzard joined Westminster and St Stephen’s Hospital as a consultant in 1978. His main interest was the pathogenesis of cancer of the colon but shortly after his arrival, Adam Lawrence referred to him one of the first patients in the UK with AIDS. The subsequent rapid increase of the St Stephen’s Centre was facilitated by Gazzard and other general managers who allowed the infectious diseases and private patients wing to be used for the care of patients with HIV.

The rapidly increasing epidemic led Dr Gazzard to change from being a gastroenterologist to a physician interested in the treatment of immune deficiency. He was the clinical director of this unit until 1996 but continued as research clinical director for many years after. He was also the founding chair of the British HIV Association (BHIVA) and the chair of the Department of Health’s Expert Advisory Group on AIDS. In 2011, Gazzard was awarded a CBE for services to healthcare in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

The Gazzard Day Unit was named in his honour, a ward dedicated to chemotherapy patients.

The Kobler Clinic

The Kobler Clinic was first opened on 13 September 1988 by Diana, Princess of Wales. It was the first NHS service designed specifically for HIV patients.

It is named after Fred Kobler, a Czech-born architect, who following his death in 1987 left an estate worth in excess of £2,750,000. This money was used to create the Kobler Trust that supports worthy and diverse causes, including founding the Kobler outpatient clinic for HIV sufferers.

The Kobler Centre is currently based within the St Stephen’s Centre on Fulham Road and 35 years later is the largest specialist HIV unit in Europe, seeing approximately 5,000 patients.

Today, our HIV team are still leading the way in HIV care and innovation with their pioneering work in digital solutions. First introduced as a pilot in Kobler Clinic in 2018, Klick is a pathway of care for people living with HIV based around an app which allows patients to book and reschedule appointments remotely as well as request medication and receive messages from healthcare professionals.

John Hunter Clinic (JHC)

The JHC is a sexual health clinic located within the St Stephen’s Centre and offers on-the-day booked sexual health appointments and specialist services. The JHC opened in 1980 at St Stephen’s Hospital and soon attracted over 10,000 attendances a year.

It was named after John Hunter, a pioneering 18^th century surgeon who made important contributions to early research into venereal disease. He was a local man who had a 40-acre zoo in Earl’s Court village where he undertook research into comparative anatomy.

The clinic had many innovative features including a mixed, pleasant waiting room and music. Patients were called by their first name, a practice that preserved confidentiality as well as enhancing the informality of the service.

The Gazzard Day Unit

The Gazzard Day Unit (GDU) is located in Ron Johnson Ward and provides joint care with oncology, day case treatments and rapid review to those who are acutely unwell. It is also the area dedicated to chemotherapy patients.

The Gazzard Day Unit is named after internationally renowned HIV expert Prof Brian Gazzard who worked as a gastroenterologist and general physician at the Trust. Not only was he instrumental in establishing the HIV unit in 1987 but he also saw one of the first cases of HIV disease in Europe in 1981. In 2011, Brian was awarded a CBE for services to healthcare.

The Ron Johnson Ward

The Ron Johnson Ward, named after a patient who was treated by Dr Brian Gazzard and who kindly donated funds, opened in 2012 and replaced the existing Thomas Macaulay Ward and Kobler Day Care for HIV patients. It incorporates oncology and haematology services, meaning all chemotherapy and other anti-cancer therapies for outpatients are provided in one place.

Prior to its opening, the Thomas Macaulay Ward, named after the charge nurse, was established in the 1980s and was dedicated to people living with HIV/AIDS. It even had its own endoscopy suite. Its philosophy was to maximise patient independence, an ethos that is still followed to this day.

In 2016, Imperial College Healthcare Trust and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust merged their inpatient services for people living with HIV in the Ron Johnson Ward, maintaining specialist HIV and oncology expertise for more than 16,000 people.