Treating Patients With Pride

Pride

Local Inclusive Care

Akron Children’s Hospital Center for Gender Affirming Medicine • Provides pubertal suppression, hormone therapy, mental health care and more • Multidisciplinary team

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children’s Hospital • Does not have an official center, but still provides services and resources • Has been named a “leader in LGBTQ care” by the Human Rights Campaign

Summa Health’s Pride Clinic • Located in Akron • Has a specially trained staff and encourages “do ask, do tell” to develop openness between providers and patients

MetroHealth • Network of locations throughout Northeast Ohio • First LGBTQ+ friendly clinic in the Cleveland area • Member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health • Plans to expand in 2020

At Akron Children’s Hospital, the Center for Gender Affirming Medicine, which opened in 2019, provides pubertal suppression, hormone therapy, mental health care, wellness checks, preventative care and educational programs to transgender patients and the community. Their multidisciplinary team includes a social worker, nurse coordinator, mental health professional and endocrinologist in addition to nurses and doctors.

Carole Becerra, director of Inclusion and Diversity, says, “At Akron Children’s Hospital, one of our three promises is to treat every child as we would our own. We pride ourselves on being able to offer compassionate care to children and young people regardless of their sexual identity … We hope our efforts to be inclusive can serve as an example to other healthcare institutions in our region.”

Additionally, Dr. Stephen Sondike, director of Adolescent Medicine – which oversees the Center – says that the goal is to try to “set the tone from the beginning” through signs such as preferred names and pronouns, symbols of support at the desk and gender-neutral language.

Dr. Elizabeth Miller, the chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Young Adult Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, is another leader in the effort to aid LGBTQ+ patients. While her institution does not have an official center, it provides services and resources and has been named a “leader in LGBTQ care” by the Human Rights Campaign.

“Creating inclusive spaces throughout the hospital is good for the care we provide our patients overall,” she says. “As we encourage ourselves to continuously improve our environment so that everyone feels included, we communicate empathy and compassion that is the hallmark of our care.”

Access to accepting environments early on helps combat the higher risk for suicide, homelessness and other issues faced by the transgender community, the Williams Institute reports. But, these services are not exclusive to children’s or adolescent healthcare.

Summa Health’s Pride Clinic, located in Akron, has a specially trained staff and encourages “do ask, do tell” to develop openness between providers and patients. Additionally, MetroHealth’s network of locations throughout Northeast Ohio has a long history serving the community. MetroHealth had the first LGBTQ+ friendly clinics in the Cleveland area and is a member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

Dr. Mark McLoney, a provider at MetroHealth’s PRIDE Clinics, says that in 2020, the clinic will expand. It will add more locations, increase hours and hire additional providers “who are trained in the area of LGBTQ+ health care, providers who have a strong commitment to the community.” He also wrote in an email that not every provider has a resource like the clinic to connect with, but that does not mean they cannot be supportive.

“Physicians who wish to help the LGBTQ+ population, but are not connected to a center specifically treating this population, can look into the GLMA [Gay and Lesbian Medical Association] and the WPATH [World Professional Association for Transgender Health] for additional training,” he wrote.

In order to ensure that this growing specialization can continue, colleges and universities are beginning to offer programs specifically for medical students who want to focus on LGBTQ+ populations. For instance, at the University of Pittsburgh Center for LGBT Health Research, students can earn a certificate in LGBT Public Health. Coursework includes history of the field, an overview of common health issues in the LGBTQ+ population, a review of intervention theories, cultural competency, critical thinking and practical experience.

Dr. Mackey Friedman, Ph.D., describes a “seismic shift” in local health systems’ readiness to work with LGBTQ+ people since he first became involved in the center 15 years ago.

“But there are communities under the LGBTQ+ umbrella who report much less acceptance from healthcare systems, especially LGBTQ+ communities of color, bisexual people and trans people,” he says. “There is a profound need for our health systems to integrate mental health, substance use and socially supportive activities so that we can effectively treat not only disease, but the social determinants, such as stigma, marginalization and isolation that promote disease risk.” The Center’s work attempts to fill these gaps.

We must work until those gaps are filled.

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"Currently, there are places that are not made with people of color in mind, and queer people of color may find themselves left out of the modern-day narrative."

Some attribute the beginning of the queer liberation movement to transgender people of color. Currently, there are places that are not made with people of color in mind, and queer people of color may find themselves left out of the modern-day narrative. Other issues may include the fetishization of minorities and racism in LGBTQ+ communities. Due to the intersection of identities, things are very different for queer people of color, and their struggles cannot be equated to the white LGBTQ+ experience.

Hearing their stories can shed a light on how the community can better welcome those who are different from them.

“It is a big thing in the community to fetishize black people, which is not good. Kollin - He/Him

Sometimes, I get stares. I get looks. I get comments. But I don’t let it affect me.

Black people in their community are very homophobic. I am not saying everyone is, but a lot of them are. And we experience that. It’s a little more quiet, a bit under the radar, but it is definitely there. I remember I one time walked into a gay bar, and it was a lot of white dudes. And I was like, ‘You know what, let me turn around and walk out,’ because I didn’t feel like there was anybody there to represent me.”

“Growing up as an ethnic minority as well as a member of the LGBTQ community, I have faced more than most. On the front of being an Asian American, I have faced blatant racism, as well as physical attacks. One time, when I was around 11 years old, walking through a parking lot, an older white man threw chopsticks at me. John Kraus - He/Him

I have been followed around stores when others my age who are white have not been and have been told many times to go back to my own country. Growing up as a gay man in America has also been a challenge. Throughout all of middle school, I was bullied for being gay even before I knew I was. ... I struggled heavily with being depressed and self-worth.

However, through it all, I would not change a single thing. I have become the strong and independent person I am today through all of the hardship I have faced, and I'm proud and unapologetic of who I am.”

“I’m intersex, and one of the reasons my family didn’t feel comfortable with telling me was because I’m black, and there is a lot of stigma around being intersex. I accept it more now, but too many times we make too many assumptions. I definitely share the experience where people don’t see me as queer, and that’s frustrating, because I am. Mena Ruffin - They/Them

I am meeting people who don’t have a lot of experiences with black people or queer people. It’s all love at the end of the day, you know? We want love and respect like anyone else.

I only went to Pride once, and when I was there, I saw one person of color. And it was my only friendly interaction. I felt that no one even looked at me.

I feel like it is something that I shouldn’t hide, as you can’t understand me unless you understand my blackness and my queerness at the same time. It has definitely been frustrating when I was there because I had queer experiences I’ve been wanting to share, wanting to celebrate. And it was like ‘Oh, I might as well go home.’ One day I’ll go back to Pride.”

ISLAND OF LESBOS Sappho:

36 Sappho: Etymology: < (a) classical Latin Lesbius of or belonging to Lesbos (especially with reference to Sappho and her poetry, to wine, and to architecture), or its etymon (b) ancient Greek Λέσβιος of or belonging to Lesbos ( < Λέσβος , the name of the island of Lesbos + -ιος , suffix forming adjectives) + -an suffix. Referred to as the 10th Muse by some ancients, Sappho was a Greek poet from the seventh century B.C.. She came from the island of Lesbos in the North Aegean Sea, off the coast of modern-day Turkey. She composed lyrical verses and wrote tales, myths, hymns to the gods and marriage songs. Best known for her verses of love, Sappho often wrote about passion and desire towards women. In ancient Greece, women’s lives were less documented, so it is hard to say exactly what life was like for them. The Ancient History Encyclopedia explains that the documentation that does exist was mostly written from the male perspective. It is commonly believed that many women were limited to being wives and homemakers. The New Yorker reports that women of lower classes would receive little to no formal education, and women with artistic talent were often regarded with suspicion by men. Sappho, however, managed to express her artistic passions through poetry. She wrote in a specific style now known as the “Sapphic stanza.” The Sapphic stanza, as stated by the New Yorker, is composed of three long lines followed by a short fourth. It gained much popularity in her time, and it is still used to this day, according to the Academy of American Poets. Sappho’s poems are renowned for their imagery of women, and they leave much to the reader’s imagination. She often forgoes describing a physical woman, choosing instead to show a moment in time. She evokes the essence of femininity, creating an image out of a scent, a flower or an emotion. With her words, she paints a world of desire, beauty, soft whispers and caresses. A line from one of her poem fragments reads, “A beautiful face staring back at me, stained with love.” 36