Table of Contents
Early Bird Registration Ends Tuesday, July 15th
Supreme Court Decision Worries LGBT Community
NCLR Launches #BornPerfect: The Campaign to End Conversion Therapy
Washington State Ends Discriminatory Transgender Health Insurance Policies
New Bisexual Research Collaborative on Health Formed
California’s Ban on Conversion Therapy Stands After Supreme Court Declined Case
Article: Improving Nursing Care for Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Women
Resource: Start Talking. Stop HIV
Event: LGBT Health Forum on Global LGBT Health & Rights
Webinar: The Foundations of Culturally Appropriate Integrated Services for LGBT Individuals
Webinars: Post-DOMA Federal Changes
Early Bird Registration Ends Tuesday, July 15th GLMA’s 32nd Annual Conference
September 10-13, 2014
Baltimore, MD
Join over 400 of your colleagues in LGBT health this September in Baltimore, MD, for GLMA’s 32nd Annual Conference! GLMA’s Annual Conference is the premier LGBT health conference and the world’s largest scientific gathering devoted to LGBT health issues and concerns. GLMA’s Annual Conference educates practitioners and students—from across the health professions—about the unique health needs of LGBT individuals and families.
Early bird registration ends Tuesday, July 15th! Click here to learn more and register for the conference.
Reminder: GLMA members receive a discount on registration! Become a member today!
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Supreme Court Decision Worries LGBT Community
This June 30, 2014, Advocate piece explores the potential impact of the US Supreme Court decision in Sebelius v Hobby Lobby on the LGBT community. The court ruled 5-4 that closely held corporations can deny insurance coverage of contraceptives to their employees on the basis of religious beliefs. As the article notes, although the justices stated this ruling was specific to the contraceptive coverage component in the Affordable Care Act, LGBT advocates are concerned about the potential implications this decision could have on LGBT-related healthcare, such as HIV and transgender-related care.
GLMA joined Lambda Legal and Pride at Work in submitting a friend-of-the-court brief in the case earlier this year and released a statement in response to the ruling last week.
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NCLR Launches #BornPerfect: The Campaign to End Conversion Therapy
As reported in this June 23, 2014, Time article, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) launched a new campaign called #BornPerfect aimed at passing laws across the US to protect LGBT youth, fighting in courtrooms to ensure their safety and raising awareness about the serious harms caused by conversation therapy.
GLMA is a supporter of the NCLR campaign. Click here to read more about #BornPerfect and how to get involved.
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Washington State Ends Discriminatory Transgender Health Insurance Policies
As reported in the Advocate on June 26, 2014, the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner issued a clarification that all health insurance policies (public and private) must cover transition-related care, and cannot discriminate against transgender residents of Washington. Danielle Askini, a member of the Coalition for Inclusive Healthcare and advocacy director of the Gender Justice League, said, "Removing these outdated exclusions brings Washington up to date with the latest information from medical experts and will provide transgender Washingtonians with access to lifesaving and medically necessary healthcare.”
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New Bisexual Research Collaborative on Health Formed According to the Rainbow Times on July 2, 2014, this June, leaders in bisexual health research and community activists gathered to discuss the state of the research on bisexual health. The meeting was hosted by the Fenway Institute and was co-chaired by Judith Bradford, PhD, who was also a committee member for the 2011 Institute of Medicine report on LGBT health. The Bisexual Research Collaborative on Health (BiRCH) was formed at the meeting and will foster high-level discussions of bisexual health research, host a national conference and seek to advance public awareness of bisexual health issues.
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California’s Ban on Conversion Therapy Stands After Supreme Court Declined Case According to this June 30, 2014, New York Times article, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to a California law that bans conversion therapy aimed at changing the sexual orientation of LGB minors. By not taking up the case, the federal appeals court ruling that the state’s ban does not violate free speech rights stands. In a letter to the editor in response to this article, the Executive Director of Empire State Pride Agenda notes there was a bipartisan-supported bill in the New York Assembly and the Senate that would have enacted similar legislation to that of California’s, as well as New Jersey’s. However, the Senate leadership refused to allow a vote on the bill.
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Article: Improving Nursing Care for Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Women Healthcare needs of lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LBT) women are inadequately addressed in nursing education and practice, which may contribute to heterosexism and homophobia on the part of healthcare providers. Nurses have an obligation to use available tools and resources to assess and positively transform healthcare environments to ensure high-quality care for LBT women. The context within which care for LBT women is learned, practiced and experienced requires radical improvement. This article was published in the recent issue of the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing and is available here.
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Resource: Start Talking. Stop HIV Start Talking. Stop HIV., a new phase of CDC’s Act Against AIDS initiative, seeks to reduce new HIV infections among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men by encouraging open discussion about a range of HIV prevention strategies and related sexual health issues between sex partners. Effective partner communication about HIV can reduce HIV transmission by supporting HIV testing, HIV status disclosure, condom use and the use of medicines to prevent and treat HIV. Created by and for gay and bisexual men, this new national HIV prevention campaign has a number of resources available online here.
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Event: LGBT Health Forum on Global LGBT Health & Rights July 15, 2014
7:00pm
Washington, DC
The 2nd annual LGBT Health Forum on Global LGBT Health & Rights will be held at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, Tuesday July 15th at 7:00 pm. The event is open to the public and will be webcast live worldwide. The Forum showcases current health issues for the LGBT community, this year examining the struggles of LGBT populations worldwide including ongoing persecution and violence against LGBT people and their care providers, HIV/AIDS and access to health services. Speakers include: Dr. Nils Daulaire, former assistant secretary for Global Affairs at HHS, Julie Dorf with the Council for Global Equality, Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Jack Andraka, a high school student who at age 15 developed a simple screening test for detecting several types of cancer. For more information, click here.
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Webinar: The Foundations of Culturally Appropriate Integrated Services for LGBT Individuals July 16, 2014
2:00-3:30pm EST
Integrated primary care and behavioral health providers can create culturally appropriate, highly accessible integrated care to members of the LGBT community with behavioral health conditions. Join CIHS and the CDC National Behavioral Health Network for Tobacco & Cancer Control to discuss ways to evaluate current organizational barriers to accessing care, strategies for reducing these barriers and actionable steps for implementing culturally appropriate services. Review how to internally evaluate your agency’s services, and leave with an understanding of best practices and resources to increase engagement efforts with the LGBT community. Presenters: Andrea Washington, LCSW-S, SUD and Integrated Care Coordinator, Montrose Center; Dr. Scout, Director, Network for LGBT Health Equity at CenterLink; and National LGBT Health Education Center, The Fenway Institute. Click here to register.
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Resource: Webinars: Post-DOMA Federal Changes A year after the Supreme Court decision in United States v Windsor, federal agencies have been issuing rules that affect same sex couples regarding programs like Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Medicare and Medicaid. In this two-part webinar series, you will learn what’s happened since the decision and what’s still needed to ensure the rights of LGBT same sex couples are fully recognized by the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Social Security and SSI Post-DOMA: Changes for Same Gender Couples?
July 22, 2014
2:00pm EST
Presenter: Gerald McIntyre, NSCLC Directing Attorney
Medicare & Medicaid Post-DOMA: Changes for Same Gender Couples?July 23, 2014
2:00pm EST
Presenters: Georgia Burke, NSCLC Directing Attorney
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GLMA’s LGBT Health Digest is an electronic newsletter with information and resources for health professionals concerned about the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations.
The Digest highlights issues, events, publications and other newsworthy items pertinent to LGBT health. Please feel free to circulate the Digest to your colleagues.
To sign up, send your request to digest@glma.org. Also, to submit an item to be considered for publication in the Digest, please send your request to Emily Kane-Lee at ekanelee@glma.org
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