LGBT Cancer Survivors' Voices Spotlight Cracks in Health CarE SYSTEM

The National LGBT Cancer Network released a new report today that uses the direct experiences of cancer survivors to paint a stark picture of the effect of discrimination on LGBT health. The free, downloadable booklet, “LGBT Patient Centered Outcomes,” uses the findings to suggest practical recommendations for improving health care for LGBT people.

“When we asked cancer survivors to tell us what they wanted health care providers to know, we were saddened, angered and moved by many of their stories; cancer is enough of a burden, no one should have to endure the discrimination, alienation, and, in some cases, less than adequate care because of who they are,” said Liz Margolies, Executive Director of the National LGBT Cancer Network. “For many of  the survey respondents, cancer treatment is both the same, and scarier.”

Go to the sites below to access this report and full article.

The National LGBT Cancer Network works to improve the lives of LGBT cancer survivors and those at risk by: educating the LGBT community about our increased cancer risks and the importance of screening and early detection; training health care providers to offer more culturally-competent, safe and welcoming care; and advocating for LGBT survivors in mainstream cancer organizations, the media and research. For more information, visit http://www.cancer-network.org.

The Network for LGBT Health Equity is a community-driven network of advocates and professionals looking to enhance LGBT health by eliminating tobacco use and other health disparities by linking people and information. The Network is a project of The Fenway Institute in Boston. The Fenway Institute at Fenway Health is an interdisciplinary center for research, training, education and policy development focusing on national and international health issues. For more information visit http://lgbthealthequity.wordpress.com/ and fenwayhealth.org.

 

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DO Ask Do Tell: St. Louis Veterans Hospitals initiate LGBT cultural competency training program

by The Network for LGBT Health Equity Reposted at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com,

Sherrill Wayland, MSW, SAGE: Services & Advocacy for LGBT Elders, Metro St. Louis

 

Five years ago when SAGE Metro St. Louis first started providing outreach and trainings, the Veterans Administration (VA) St. Louis Health Care System was one of the last places we expected to be. Fast forward to 2013 and we find the VA St. Louis Health Care System as one of the leaders in creating LGBT welcoming health care in Missouri.

In 2012, the VA St. Louis Health Care System held the first ever St. Louis Veterans PRIDE Celebration. A standing room only crowd of Veterans and employees packed the room to hear a panel discussion, in which SAGE Metro St. Louis participated. At this meeting, SAGE extended a welcome to the employees to have a representative join the Missouri LGBT Health Roundtable, as a part of the Missouri LGBT Health Access Project. In turn, SAGE was asked to join the VA St. Louis Health Care Systems, LGBT Advisory Council as an ad hoc committee member.

Over the years, SAGE has received calls from LGBT Veterans, fearful that they would not receive care from the VA if their LGBT status was known during the time when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was in force. We also field calls from LGBT Veterans who feel they have been treated in a discriminatory or unwelcoming fashion. Today, we have a direct linkage to the VA St. Louis Health Care System that allows us to assist LGBT Veterans with gaining welcoming care in an environment that truly honors ALL Veterans.

Over the past year, the work at the VA St. Louis has grown to include a robust offering of LGBT Health Cultural Competency Trainings provided by VA St. Louis employees and SAGE. We are currently in the process of developing a schedule of trainings for SAGE to present on a monthly basis.

With the commitment and dedication of the St. Louis VA staff, LGBT Veterans health care and access is a priority. SAGE Metro St. Louis will honor the St. Louis Veterans Administration on June 1, 2013 with the first annual “SAGE Community Cares” Award for excellence in service to the LGBT community.

The groundwork established in partnership with the VA is invaluable as we begin moving forward with sustainable policy change initiatives that will positively impact our LGBT Veterans. Like many we understand the value in building partnerships to advance our movements, and while addressing the LGBT Veterans is mandated by the federal government, having a strategic partnership established will serve as a cornerstone in advancing LGBT health inclusion efforts at both VA hospitals in St. Louis.

“Our LBGT program includes comprehensive care and ongoing education of staff and health care providers about the unique healthcare concerns of our LGBT Veteran community. We believe all staff who are knowledgeable about the health care concerns of our LGBT Veterans are better able to serve our diverse Veteran population. As the Deputy Director of the VA St. Louis Health Care System,  I am extremely proud of the commitment our providers have shown to our diverse (Veteran) patient and employee population.”      - Marc Magill, Deputy Director

BRAVO Contributes to Report on Hate Violence against LGBTIQ Community

BRAVO CONTRIBUTED TO NATIONAL REPORT ON HATE VIOLENCE AGAINST LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER, QUEER AND HIV-AFFECTED COMMUNITIES RELEASED TODAY:
Report shows second highest murder rate ever recorded. Transgender people and people of color are most targeted communities for severe hate violence. Ohio among top states reporting.
To download the full Report please visit NCAVP online.

Columbus, Ohio — The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), in a national audio press conference today, released its report Hate Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV-Affected Communities in the United States in 2010. Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization (BRAVO), a member program of NCAVP, saw the impact of severe violence against local LGBTQ and HIV-affected communities.
• Ohio is once again ranked among the top states in the nation in the number of hate violence incidents committed against LGBT people, with 340 such incidents reported in 2010.
• The 2010 data indicates a continuation in the trend of an increase in the severity of violence over the past few years, throughout BRAVO’s service area. That trend continued in 2010, reflecting a steady upward swing in the use of weapons, particularly thrown objects like bottles, rocks and bricks.
Additional key findings and recommendations from the national report include the following:
• In 2010, NCAVP documented 27 anti-LGBTQ murders, the second highest yearly total ever recorded by the coalition. This is a 23% increase from the 22 people murdered in 2009.
• 70% of the 27 reported hate murder victims in 2010 were LGBTQ and HIV-affected people of color, which represented 44% of total survivors and victims. This reflects a disproportionate targeting of people of color for severe and deadly violence. As well, people of color were less likely to receive medical attention when they needed it and less likely to receive appropriate responses from the police.
• Transgender women made up 44% of the 27 reported hate murders in 2010, while representing only 11% of total survivors and victims. As well, transgender people were more likely to have injuries as a result of attacks and less likely to receive medical care.
NCAVP documented a 13% increase in hate violence incidents from 2009 to 2010, as well as a much greater increase in the severity of violence. “The findings of this report are troubling and reveal a need for the serious commitment of organizations, institutions, funders and policymakers towards research and the prevention of violence against LGBTQ and HIV-affected individuals,” said Gloria McCauley from the Buckeye region Anti-Violence Organization. “Our recommendations represent crucial steps for ending violence against LGBTQ and HIV-affected people in this country.”

The report’s specific recommendations include calling for the following changes:
• Fund critically needed research and data collection on hate violence against LGBTQ and HIV-affected communities, their access to services, and violence prevention initiatives.
• Gather data about sexual orientation and gender identitiy in all federal, state and local government forms.
• Create new public and private funding streams and target the use of existing funds to increase access to anti-violence services for LGBTQ and HIV-affected individuals, particularly for those disproportionately affected by hate violence-i.e. transgender people and people of color.
• Create programs and campaigns to reduce anti-LGBTQ hate violence. Prioritize the leadership of those most impacted by severe hate violence within these programs.
• Stop the culture of hate through policymakers and public figures denouncing anti-LGBTQ violence.
This year’s report also includes real-life stories from LGBTQ and HIV-affected survivors of hate violence to call immediate and necessary attention to the need to end the culture of violence in which these incidents of hate violence occur.

BRAVO works to eliminate violence perpetrated on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identification, domestic violence and sexual assault through prevention, education, advocacy, violence documentation and survivor services, both within and on behalf of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities.

NCAVP works to prevent, respond to, and end all forms of violence against and within lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and HIV-affected (LGBTQH) communities. NCAVP is a national coalition of local member programs, affiliate organizations and individuals who create systemic and social change. We strive to increase power, safety and resources through data analysis, policy advocacy, education, and technical assistance.

Reposted at keystothecloset.blogger.com

Robertson: Left Backs Abortion Rights To Make Straight Women More Like Lesbians

Submitted by Brian on April 25, 2011 - 9:20am Posted at Right Wing Watch. Reposted at http://keystothecloset.blogspot.com I am not making this up. There is a video. I submit this for your entertainment.

Pat Robertson has figured out why President Obama supports the funding of Planned Parenthood and believes in a woman’s right to choose: because progressives want women to have abortions as a way to achieve equality for lesbians. While speaking with co-host Terry Meeuwsen of The 700 Club about the recent debate over Planned Parenthood’s funding, Robertson attempted to use “psychological stuff” to rationalize why progressives back Planned Parenthood and “this culture of death.” According to Robertson, progressives want straight women to “abortion their babies” to “put [lesbians] on a level playing field.”

Meeuwsen: There are lots of government-funded agencies in this country. Why do you think the President picked that one above all else to say, ‘not one penny’?

Robertson: Well it’s the left; it’s this culture of death. The far-left is livid about killing babies. They want to kill do this, they want to destroy. You go back, and I don’t want to play all this psychological stuff but nevertheless, if a woman is a lesbian, what advantage does she have over a married woman? Or what deficiency does she have?

Meeuwsen: Well, she can’t have children

Robertson: That’s exactly right. And so if these married women don’t have children, if they abort their babies, then that kind of puts them on a level playing field. And you say, nobody’s there to express that? Isn’t that shocking, well, think about it a little bit, ladies and gentlemen.

Bisexual Invisibility: Impacts and Recommendations

 This is is an excerpt from Bisexual Invisibility: Impacts and Recommendations, a report by San Fransisco Human Rights Commission. The report is an important resource and the first of it's kind to focus on research, and data about the bisexual community.The report is available at http://www.sf-hrc.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=989

“Maybe it’s about learning to see my dual desires as two magnets that stick instead of two magnets that push each other away.”

I like men. I have spent my whole life in their company. I’ve been married and have had countless

boyfriends. I have been in love with many men and sexually attracted to even more. I get

something from a man that feeds my soul in the most authentic way. I am heterosexual.

I like women. Almost every erotic dream or sexual fantasy I have ever had has been about

women. I’ve had many sexually supercharged lesbian encounters. All of them fleeting, some of

them sneaky, every one of them blazed on my memory in a way that makes my skin tingle to this

day. I am a lesbian.

There’s a more accurate word for what I am though: it’s “bisexual”. But I struggle with this term.

First of all, it contains the word “sexual” which is limiting as it makes it uncomfortable to talk

about with children, for example.

Plus, aren’t there periods of my life when I long for men and can’t imagine being with a woman?

And when I’m longing for women, I can’t imagine being with a man. The two states never coexist.

When I was married, I was happy, as long as I was in a man-longing state; during my

woman-longing states, my marriage felt like a forced sexual nightmare. In the end, the marriage

couldn’t survive. Would a lesbian relationship be any different?

I’m beginning to think that I will never find out. Many lesbians say they “don’t date bisexuals.”

Discrimination? “No, it’s a choice,” they say. Fine. Whatever. Maybe I even see what they mean.

I do come out, though, to people I date and to others. Admitting that I’m bisexual to my

heterosexual friends is embarrassing, though

Like the next thing I’m going to say is, “Do you want to watch me go down on your girlfriend?”

Admitting that I’m bisexual to my gay friends is just as awkward, like admitting that I’m not a “real”

lesbian. As if I had parts missing or am contaminated by the semen that still lingers inside me.

But maybe it’s really more about my own attitude. Maybe it’s about learning to be able to see my

dual desires as two magnets that stick instead of two magnets that push each other away.

I’ve noticed that unless you’re in the habit of walking into rooms with a woman on one arm and a

man on the other, it’s hard for anybody to ever see the whole of you all at once. How do we ever

know who the bisexuals are unless we reach out to each other in a very purposeful way? I have

literally never been invited to do this

―like admitting to a certain brand of sluttiness.―until now. Thank you.– Gina C., 50, female

National LGBTIQ Health Week 2011

In honor of National LGBTIQ health week (March 27-April 1, 2011) I would like to introduce you to some leaders in the community who are making a difference.

Gay and Lesbian Quitters of Steel

Brief description: Gay and Lesbians interested in Kicking Butts Foever thru forming a United Force.  68 members.  They can be found at “Become an X: Re-learn Life without Cigarettes Group page.”

http://community.becomeanex.org/pg/groups/647878/gaylesbian-quitters-of-steel/?annoff=20

"This group is dedicated to gay men and women (and their supporters) who are truly dedicated to kicking the butts forever.  I mean, how the hell are we going to be strong enough to fight for the freedoms we deserve if we're killing ourselves by inches by smoking?  See what I'm saying?  So, if you're interested in getting support and understanding from others who know exactly what you're going through, join the group.  Lets keep working together to eliminate as many ills as we possibly can."

Reposted at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com/