Honoring James Baldwin Through Our Work

This week, we celebrate the birthday of James Baldwin, one of the most courageous and transformative writers in American history. Baldwin laid bare the structures of oppression, but he also illuminated the possibilities of justice, beauty, and freedom. He insisted on telling the truth about identity, about pain, and about love.

At Mazzoni Center, we draw strength and direction from Baldwin’s vision. Our work in LGBTQ health is not only about treating illness, it’s also about affirming humanity. As Baldwin taught, our liberation is bound up in one another’s. That’s why our approach to care is rooted in our values: we respect every individual, focus on the needs of our patients and clients, center inclusion, and act with integrity in everything we do.

We believe, like James Baldwin, that health is not just the absence of illness, but the presence of dignity. It means creating spaces where people can show up fully, where they are seen, believed, and treated with care.

Baldwin wrote, “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” We believe our job, our calling, is to help people live without those masks. To offer care that heals not just the body but affirms the self.

Thank you for being a part of this work with us. In celebrating Baldwin, we recommit to the future he imagined, and the present we are building together.