Potential References For Healthcare & LGBT community:
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/6/11-088229/en/
http://www.lgbthealtheducation.org/wp-content/uploads/Improving-the-Health-of-LGBT-People.pdf
Some of my own thoughts:
I'll probably move some things from the lead to the main article space. I think more work needs to be done to the article's main body than the lead (which feels kind of long anyway).
Healthcare and the LGBT community [Draft]
LGBT topics in medicine are those that relate to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people's health issues and access to health services. According to the US Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA), besides HIV/AIDS, issues related to LGBT health include breast and cervical cancer, hepatitis, mental health, substance abuse, tobacco use, depression, access to care for transgender persons, issues surrounding marriage and family recognition, conversion therapy, and refusal clause legislation, and laws that are intended to "immunize health care professionals from liability for discriminating against persons of whom they disapprove."[1]
Studies show that LGBT people experience health issues and barriers related to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity or expression, making them more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to experience difficulty accessing healthcare. Many avoid or delay care or receive inappropriate or inferior care because of perceived or real homophobia or transphobia, and discrimination by health care providers and institutions,[2] or overall negative personal experience, the assumption or expectation of negative experience based on knowing of history of such experience in other LGBT people, or both.[3] Consequently, many LGBT patients become reluctant to reveal their sexual orientation or gender identity to their providers, even though it is important for their health care. Many physicians lack awareness of their health needs, due to little training about LBGT health in medical schools. However, organizations, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offer multiple guidelines and recommendations for treating LBGT patients.
It is often pointed that the reason of this is heterosexism in medical care and research:[4][5]
"Heterosexism can be purposeful (decreased funding or support of research projects that focus on sexual orientation) or unconscious (demographic questions on intake forms that ask the respondent to rate herself or himself as married, divorced, or single). These forms of discrimination limit medical research and negatively impact the health care of LGB individuals. This disparity is particularly extreme for lesbians (compared to homosexual men) because they have a double minority status, and experience oppression for being both female and homosexual."[6]
Especially with lesbian patients they may be discriminated in three ways:
1. homophobic attitudes
2. heterosexist judgements and behavior
3. general sexism — with focusing primarily male health concerns and services; assigning subordinate to that of men health roles for women, as for service providers and service recipients [3]
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