Planned gay
health center in Boston would be nation's largest

Boston's Fenway Community Health Center, a research and clinic facility specializing in the care of LGBT patients, is poised for an expansion that would make it the nation's largest gay health center, The Boston Globe reports.

The current facility provides research and clinical trials to test methods to reduce HIV transmission and search for potential vaccines, as well as HIV testing and care. The center is planning a $55 million expansion that would bring the center to a brand-new 10-story, 100,000-square-foot building.

Donors are currently being sought to fund the expansion. Out actress-comic Lily Tomlin and her partner, Jane Wagner, are national honorary cochairs of the fund-raising effort and are donating their proceeds from Tomlin's one-woman show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe to the center.

"We're very excited about it," Stephen Boswell, the center's president and chief executive, told the Globe. "This new building will bring our staff together in one home." (The Advocate)