[1][2][3] Among his contributions, Lear was a founder of the Institute of Social Medicine and Community Health and the Maternity Care Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.
As part of his efforts on this committee, he was one of 30 doctors who picketed the 1963 conference of the American Medical Association in Atlantic City, New Jersey, protesting the organization's segregationist policies of the time.
[1] After speaking at an LGBTQ+ event at University of Pennsylvania in 1975 that celebrated the inspiring life of Howard Brown, an impactful LGBTQ+ activist, Walter Lear himself publicly and proudly came out of the closet, declaring himself gay.
Lear had been experiencing inner turmoil and conflict about whether he should reveal himself and his identity because of the social context of the time where such a controversial announcement was uncommon.
From then, Lear was one of the first openly gay people to hold public offices in the city and state as the commissioner of health for Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Lear's interest in helping others originates back in the 1950s when he started advocating for his patients’ healthcare rights and racial justice.
Lear helped found and launch a multitude of organizations such as the Penguin Place, Lavender Health Project, Delaware Valley Legacy Fund, Philadelphia AIDS Task Force, the local chapter of the Radical Faeries, but arguably most well known for the Medical Committee for Human Rights.
[12] Furthermore, Lear inadvertently became a national icon when a photo of him was taken when he went on strike against an American Medical Association conference in Atlantic City.
He protested their segregationist policies and increased general public awareness of the unfair rules and regulations that targeted marginalized groups.
[10] He was one of the earliest advocates to push for a public health system that would guarantee health-insurance coverage for all citizens of the United States of America.
[13] As an agency that worked to chronicle the progress of health activism and offer guidance to other organizers of advocacy events, the Institute for Community Health and Social Medicine aimed to combine the work of social historians and community activists into a living collection and conglomeration of evidence.
[14] Lear guided and shaped this organization into being a special kind of documentation of the real time developments, progression, and radical changes, ensuring that social movements, but specifically healthcare reform for minority groups, had a solid historical foundation.
[5] The William Way LGBT Community Center maintains a collection of papers and correspondence from Walter Lear's career for the period 1975 to 1996.