Happy Pride! Some incredible folks working to decrease health disparities for LGBTQ+ community
Happy Pride!
I met with a patient of mine this week who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community and had to visit a specialist office last week. The first thing they told me about the visit was “It’s just not a place that’s meant for me, everyone was really nice, but I just didn’t belong there.” It made my heart break and I wasn’t surprised at all. Most health care spaces are not set up to be inclusive or to focus on the mental safety of their patients. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to start my own practice.
It is very well established that there are myriad health disparities experienced by the LGBTQ+ community and I’ve included some links below where you can read more about them. Since so often we focus on the negative or the lack of communities designated as a “health disparity population” (kind of dehumanizing?), I wanted to focus today on the amazing work that folks are doing to combat these disparities. Check them out and support them anyway you can!
The Fenway Institute: Research, guidelines, care for the LGTBQ+ community
https://fenwayhealth.org/the-fenway-institute/
Trevor Project: Counselors, education and research especially for LGBTQ+ youth
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
Trans Lifeline: Emotional and financial support for the trans community!
GLMA: Health professionals working to end LGBTQ+ health disparities. Plus, they just sued the NIH for ending funding for LGBTQ+ health research.
Northwest Gender Alliance: Organizing, education and outreach for trans, non binary, and gender fluid folks. They also have an awesome primer on gender terminology!
https://www.nwgenderalliance.org/
Gender Diversity: Training and education to help make all spaces safe and inclusive for LGBTQ+ kids and adults
https://genderdiversity.org/health-care-providers/
I hope you find this work inspiring. I do! It is so needed and currently a lot of the funding and resources for this work, as well as research for health in the LGBTQ+ community, has been cut or is in danger of being cut. So please check these organizations out, celebrate their amazing work, and give a giant hug to your LGBTQ+ community.
Caylin
P.S. Do you have any organizations that you love supporting health for LGBTQ+ community? Share them!
P.P.S. You can read here a little more about health disparities in the LGTBQ+ community:
