Blog 6/22/22

Pride Month is a time to celebrate and have fun. It is also a time to highlight the health equity gap faced by many LGBTQ+ people. Let’s make Pride Month about expanding our knowledge of why there is a gap, so that we can work together to close it.

Social stigma, discrimination, transphobia, and homophobia make it hard – and often unsafe – for many LGBTQ+ people to get the healthcare they need. Healthcare systems often add to the problem by using medical diagnoses as a way of ‘othering’ instead of caring. Providers must have a high level of cultural competency and humility when serving LGBTQ+ people.

As this chart shows, this history of hostility, abuse, and offensive language and questions widens the LGBTQ+ health equity gap.

Reference: https://www.radixhealth.com/blog/lgbtq-patient-access

Sadly, statehouses across the country are working to widen the LGBTQ+ health equity gap with record numbers of proposed bills that target the healthcare rights of transgender youth and the LGBTQ+ community at large.  In this political climate, our mission to serve Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander patients at the intersection of LGBTQ+ identities is more urgent than ever.

Equitas Health has built its legacy on a foundation of LGBTQ+ advocacy and activism. We must keep listening and learning to build on that foundation. Our learning and our work to close the LGBTQ+ health equity gap are year-round efforts. Real change takes real work and more than one month a year to get it done.

We invite you to review the following resource lists, where you can learn more about groups listed below that are working to close the LGBTQ+ health equity gap.

How better to celebrate Pride than learning about or getting involved with their work?

Learning Resources at Equitas Health:

• The Gender Affirming Care Department
• The Equitas Health Institute

Other Learning Resources:  

• GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality
• The Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
• Lambda Legal
• Modern Military Association of America (MMAA) (LGBTQ+ military and veteran families worldwide)
• National Center for Transgender Equality
• PFLAG: Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
• The Trevor Project
• University of California San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Resource Center
• World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)
• Center of Excellence: LGBTQ+ Behavioral Health Equity

By Dominique Shepherd (she/her/hers),
Program Manager of Health Equity
Equitas Health