NYC Health + Hospitals announced the opening of a comprehensive Pride Health Center in Metropolitan Hospital in Harlem on April 12. Patients of the LGBTQ+ community can receive respectful, quality care in a dedicated safe space.

This new Pride Health Center provides several services, including primary and preventative care for all ages and genders, as well as gender-affirming care, HIV testing and treatment, affirming-care and vaccines.

“Seeing a health care provider can be daunting for people in the LGBTQ community because of a lack of respect and understanding,” NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz said in a press release from the organization. “Accessing high-quality, comprehensive health care is a basic human right and you shouldn’t be denied that because of who you love or how you identify.”

The Pride Health Center at Metropolitan is located within its outpatient sector on the first floor. The center is open on weekdays, but LGBTQ+-affirming care is available 24/7 at Metropolitan via its emergency and ambulatory care departments.

Metropolitan Hospital “continues to set the standard for this type of care,” being the first municipal hospital to open a health center for the LGBTQ+ community, according to Katz.

Metropolitan’s emergency departments continue the trajectory of the center’s provision of LGBTQ+-centered care. Within two years of its opening in 2014, it also extended its services to include gender-affirming surgeries and care. Since then, the center has provided over 150 gender-affirming top surgeries, the press release noted.

“By investing in Pride Centers at our public hospitals, the City is supporting and championing every New Yorker’s right to access queer-affirming health care,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said. “This is especially meaningful at a time when more than half of American states have banned or put in jeopardy queer-affirming care.”

This is the seventh Pride Health Center to be opened in conjunction with NYC Health + Hospitals. The others are located at its other hospitals in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

“Because of the H+H/Metropolitan Pride Center, New Yorkers and those beyond our city will know that their health and lives are valued here,” Levine added.