Discover Your City
New York’s legendary lesbian bar, Henrietta Hudson, has drawn queer women and their friends far and wide through its doors since 1991.
A new generation of queer women is up-leveling the traditional lesbian bar and bucking the trend of the closure of women-centric watering holes.
In the process, they are creating queer welcoming spaces everyone wants to hang out at and be seen.
When the global pandemic hit, fear gripped the world. Covid-19’s shelter-in-place orders shuttering businesses and closing places where people regularly gathered and mandating social distancing and masking sent shockwaves through small businesses. Entertainment venues, like bars, restaurants, and nightclubs were hit hard.
The Lesbian Bar Project
Queer women’s and gender-nonconforming spaces, were particularly threatened. Lesbian bars were closing at a rapid rate when the pandemic forced everyone to stay home. Only 21 lesbian bars existed throughout the United States in 2020, according to The Lesbian Bar Project.
The Lesbian Bar Project is an organization launched by lesbian filmmakers Erica Rose and Elina Street and award-winning star and comedian executive producer Lea DeLaria of Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.”
The women created a documentary about the loss of lesbian spaces and the meaning for those spaces to exist for queer communities in a short film released last year. Lesbian bars once thrived as community spaces for queer women and gender-nonconforming people topping at 200 in 1980, 40 years later they dwindled to a little more than two dozen. The women’s goal: Save lesbian bars.Fears of lesbian bars closing are being stymied by a surge of lesbian-owned bars opening. If anything, rather than evaporating the remaining bars the pandemic revived lesbian bars in the most unexpected way. The last lesbian bars standing are seeing a resurgence of patrons and lesbian-led queer-centric bars are opening around the world. Once again, these bars are creating space for a community thirsty and hungry to connect, live, and celebrate their lives together.
Moreso, these women-led queer bars are not your lesbian dive bars of yesteryear. They are hip, cool, sophisticated serving up craft brews to wicked elixirs and some are dishing out tasty plates of food to go with the drinks in stylin’ digs.
OUTvoices traveled to several of these bars to witness the revolution ourselves.
Elixir Mixology Bar, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Elixir Mixology Bar owners Laura Jaimes, left, and Elena Esquer Zolezzi, right, stand outside of their cocktail lounge in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Photo Credit: Heather Cassell
Puerto Vallarta’s newest swanky lounge, Elixir Mixology Bar, is the place to be in the trendy Zona Romantica. Opened by expert mixologists Elena Esquer Zolezzi; her wife, Sarah Rose; and best friend Laura Jaimes in January 2021, their electrifying style of high-end cocktails made in a stylish laidback lounge became an instant hit with locals and visitors.
The Mexican lesbians have 40 years of upscale mixology and hospitality experience combined working on cruise ships and cities around the world. That experience and their pride as queer women show in the hip setting that they’ve created and the rainbow flags waving proudly in the breeze from the fans blowing.
The lounge is another world the moment you step inside. Zolezzi, Rose, Jaimes, and their staff greet guests, warmly offering a seat at the bar or in the lounge. They want everyone who walks through their doors to get comfortable in the intimate space and enjoy the magic they create from their cocktails to the small bites from the menu.
Zolezzi and Jaimes are often found behind the bar chatting up guests as they mix their enchanting concoctions.
The women are proud to have a bar that is women-centric, proudly lesbian-owned, and is a place where everyone is welcome.
Cadadía Bar-Café, Merida, Mexico
Emma Molin holding her dog, Etta Francine, opened Cadadía Bar-Cafe to create a space to empower women and serve good food and drinks in the Yucatan’s capital city, Merida, in Mexico.
Photo Credit: Heather Cassell
Located in the Yucatan’s capital city, Merida, Cadadía Bar-Cafe, Emma Molin, a self-identified queer dyke American expatriate, opened her own women-centric bar. Her goal, empower women and provide a safe space for the city’s queer community in June 2021.
She created a comfortable stylish space for feminists, queer women, and others to enjoy as well as support artists from the artwork on the walls to hosting events in the space in the charming stylish bar.
By day, guests can grab their lattes and a pastry and relax by reading the morning paper or a book. On any given night, guests can enjoy beer, wine, and cocktails paired with a delightful selection from small bites to full meals from the menu.
Guests can even meet, Etta Francine, Molin’s dog, the unofficial “queen” of the bar, and her mother. Molin’s mother moved to Merida with her in 2015. She is often at the bar with her daughter.Nobody’s Darling, Chicago, USA
Nobody’s Darling owners Angela Barnes, front, and Renauda Riddle, back, opened their smooth bluesy funk Nina Simone-styled lounge in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood to bring people together in a comfortable cool space.
Photo Credit: Susanne Fairfax
An anthem for a post-pandemic and woke world, Nobody’s Darling is not your average neighborhood bar. It has a cool jazzy, funk vibe that exudes confidence and pride.
The bartenders shake, stir, and deliver high-end cocktails for the crowd that packs into the small space once known as the lesbian-owned wine bar, Joie De Vine, on the quiet treelined street in Chicago’s Andersonville.
The bar has a mission. It calls for its patrons to come as they are and be free. It beckons lesbians, queers, gender variant people, and other outsiders, misfits, and outcasts to walk through its doors, have a seat, enjoy a drink, and strike up a conversation with their neighbor in the intimate space.
That’s exactly what queer Black women activists and friends Angela Barnes and Renauda Riddle envisioned when they opened Chicago’s second only Black-owned queer bars, the South Shore’s Jeffery Pub, being the other. Barnes, general counsel and director of legal affairs and growth initiatives at City Tech Collaborative, and Riddle, a revenue auditor for Illinois, by day and event organizers by night imagined a Nina Simone-styled lounge that welcomed everyone. They ripped the bar’s namesake from Alice Walker’s poem, “Be Nobody’s Darling,” posting the poem on the bar’s wall to remind their patrons to bask in their otherness and order a high-end cocktail to celebrate being who they are.
Opened May 2021, Barnes and Riddle dare to deliver equality as a high-end cocktail bar for people on the fringe. It is the antithesis of the boys of Halsted’s “Boystown,” which is majority white gay men. For too long anyone who wasn’t white, male, and gay experienced an unstated, “you are not welcome here,” glance or gaze, a shift or movement of the body, lack of service, and sometimes even words. It is unclear if the neighborhood’s rebranding from “Boystown” to “Northalsted” in 2021 will reverse the decades-long discrimination rooted in the neighborhood before 2020’s summer of racial reckoning.
Nobody’s Darling is what the Washington Post called “Boystown’s lesbian foil.”The Sports Bra, Portland, OR USA
Jenny Nguyen’s Sports Bra Bar gives women’s sports and its fans their due in Portland, Oregon.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dalila Brent
No longer an off-the-cuff joke between her girlfriend, Liz Leavens, and friends, chef and restaurateur Jenny Nguyen’s, The Sports Bra, tagline: “We support women,” is a reality. The nation’s first women’s sports bar focused on women in sports opened in Portland, Oregon April 1.
It will be game on all day, every day for women’s sports at The Sports Bra whether there’s a match or highlighting women athletes on Just Women’s Sports, which will stream on days there aren’t games on the numerous big-screen TVs around the bar.
The bar’s opening kicked off with the women’s March Madness Final Four, with the championship game and six National Women’s Soccer League games that followed over the weekend, reported Portland Magazine. The doors opened just as the National Women’s Soccer League, Women’s National Basketball Association, and other sporting events are underway for the 2022 season.
Guided by the #MeToo, #TimesUp, and the racial and social justice reckoning in 2020, Portlander Nguyen ditched years of frustration at the lack of attention paid to women’s sports and their fans to open the bar. She was tired of being disappointed and angered at having the channel changed by staff and other patrons in the middle of women’s sporting events back to male teams while her friends and she watched at local bars. She was also fed up with pay inequity in sports to the hospitality industry. She dreamed of a bar where women’s sports fans, like herself, could watch games uninterrupted and feel empowered. She playfully called her imaginary women’s sports bar, The Sports Bra.
Girl powered from the ground up, women’s sports fans of all ages can sit, sip, and dine on girl-created furniture, libations, and food. The bar’s furniture is made by girls at Girls Build, a carpentry and construction nonprofit organization that teaches girls how to build. The bar’s beers and spirits are crafted by women-owned breweries and distilleries and poured by women bartenders. Nguyen herself heads up the kitchen crafting sports bar standards – burgers, buffalo wings, and nachos – and not-so-standard Vietnamese-style baby back ribs and wings made from products produced by women farmers in the family-friendly bar.
Who knows, fans might catch sightings of the U.S. Women’s National Team defender and Portland Thorns Football Club’s openly lesbian team member Crystal Dunn and other women, professional athletes, at the lesbian-owned sports bar too.
As You Are Bar, Washington, D.C., USA
Rachel Pike, front, and Jo McDaniel, back, founders and owners of Capitol Hill’s new lesbian bar, As You Are Bar in Washington, D.C.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Zayn Thiam
Ripped from the famous Nirvana song, “Come As You Are,” the capital city’s newest lesbian hot spot for queer people and allies is As You Are Bar.
The bar is requeering the space formerly the home of D.C.’s historic lesbian bar, Phase 1, which closed in 2017. The building was occupied by a Black-owned District Soul Food, which closed during the pandemic, reported DCist.
The queer café and lounge in the Barracks Row neighborhood, is the vision of D.C.’s lesbian bar nightlife veterans, business owners, and newly engaged Jo McDaniel and Rachel Pike. The couple have more than 40 years’ experience working in and managing the capital city’s queer bar scene. They opened the Capital Hill bar on March 22, reported the Washington Blade.
They hope everyone – including diplomats and politicians – will find community and enjoy the bar, café, and lounge.
As You Are Bar already got its first political patrons, gay U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, reported the Blade. The political couple live in the neighborhood and dropped in for a drink to show their support for the bar the first day its doors opened.
McDaniel, who identifies as genderqueer, and Pike, a lesbian, more than 20 years’ experience combined in D.C.’s lesbian bar scene and nightlife saw the need for community as soon as the pandemic hit sending the queer community and everyone else into isolation. They responded by creating a space on Zoom hosting events, such as trivia contests, happy hours, and dance parties virtually for people 18-years and older. The virtual events attracted an estimated 500 people which gave birth to As You Are Bar as a space in real life for its virtual patrons and everyone else.
The location of As You Are was important to McDaniel and Pike. They wanted easy access to the café and lounge as well as be near Capitol Hill. They wanted a space that could be used for multiple purposes beyond a bar, a space that would be a hub for the community.
The bar will eventually have two distinct areas, one for the café – which will include workspace for telecommuters – and lounge and the other for the bar and dance boutique.
No Wave Coffee’s Reggie Elliot consulted on the coffee menu and Nina Love is crafting the menu and managing the kitchen, reported Washington City Paper.
As You Are Bar tapped DJ Mim to keep the music flowing at the lesbian bar and club.
McDaniel and Pike look forward to working with the community to create a welcoming space for everyone, they said.
Henrietta Hudson, New York, NY, USA
New York’s legendary lesbian bar, Henrietta Hudson, has drawn queer women and their friends far and wide through its doors since 1991.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Molly Adams
One of New York’s longest-running lesbian bars in New York, Henrietta Hudson, got a makeover in 2021 and she is looking good.
The West Village lesbian hot spot has been a destination for queer women from all over the world for more than 30-years since it opened in 1991. The bar is known for its wild parties in the dark interior, but she’s no longer that dark brooding girl. Henrietta or Hen, as regulars endearingly call her, reinvented herself during the global pandemic into a Holly Golightly-esque a la Audrey Hepburn for a new generation of loyal followers. While the party girl never really died, Hen has grown up and gotten a sleeker, more sophisticated look, what owners of the iconic bar Lisa Cannistraci and Minnie Rivera call a “cross between a living room and a petite café” all dressed up in a mid-20th century-modern circa Palm Springs featuring “comfy chairs, plush ottomans, work nooks, and a dining area.”
Cannistraci and Rivera took the opportunity the pandemic gave them to reimagine the Manhattan lesbian bar, what they call a “queer human space built by lesbians.” Hen still sports her disco ball that thousands have passed under at the entryway, but guests now step into a swanky bar where they can still enjoy Hen’s staples of gay TV watch parties, happy hours, and of course, themed nights with DJs.
The party girl isn’t too far away, but now she’s stylin’ in a whole new way. Guests can sit inside the bar or outside in the custom-designed parklet while they sip on their wine-and-cocktail bar offerings from femme-identifying and BIPOC (Black and indigenous people of color) winemakers and cocktail mixes by Brooklyn’s Wandering Barman. They can order charcuterie and cheese plates and vegan dips and chips from woman-owned, Cowgirl, down the street while they lounge.
Guests shouldn’t leave without their Henrietta circa 1980s-retro style merch from the lesbian bar. How Zizmorcore of Hen’s fans.😉
The Zizmorcore fashion trend is named after longtime subway advertiser Dr. Jonathan Zizmor, a dermatologist. His ads on New York subway cars were a staple for decades, reported the New York Times.El Rio, San Francisco, USA
One of San Francisco’s hottest and longest-running tea parties, Mango, at El Rio the city’s queer woman-owned dive bar for everyone.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of El Rio
El Rio, officially called El Rio, Your Dive, is the iconic queer woman-owned diver bar located on the edge of San Francisco’s Bernal Heights and Mission neighborhoods. An institution in the City by the Bay for 43-years, its known for its backyard, queer and trans staff, the bar’s signature drinks, and its commitment to social justice causes and the city’s LGBTQ community.
The bar is known for its legendary backyard where it hosts lesbian tea dance parties, Mango and Swagger Like Us, among other queer events. It's mostly queer and trans staff and bartenders shaking and mixing the bar’s signature drinks. Its progressive thinking (it had gender-neutral bathrooms long before anyone else). El Rio wouldn’t be an iconic queer woman-owned dive bar without its requisite pool and shuffleboard tables.
Owned by Dawn Huston, a queer woman, for decades, the onetime door person took over El Rio, once a leather Brazilian gay bar, from its founders and then-owners Malcolm Thornley and Robert Nett. Nett and Thornley opened El Rio in 1978. The two gay men retired in 1997 and passed the bar to Huston, reported the Bay Area Reporter.
The bar is so iconic San Francisco designated it as a legacy business in 2017. In 2019, the Mission Economic Development Agency bought the building that houses El Rio for $6.8 million.
When the pandemic hit and Huston was struggling like other small LGBTQ-owned businesses, the Human Rights Campaign and Showtime stepped in with its "Queer to Stay: An LGBTQ+ Business Preservation Initiative," reported the BAR. El Rio became one of California’s two queer businesses the partnership infused with cash to protect and preserve queer businesses through the initiative.
Showtime is the cable network that produces LGBTQ shows "The L Word" and "Queer as Folk."
HRC is a global LGBTQ advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.Catch the action from Washington, D.C. live on OutVoices.US
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The 2022 ASANA Softball World Series will bring together nearly 70 of the most competitive adult softball teams in the country to Washington, D.C. August 16 – 20. The tournament, which welcomes LGBTQ cisgender women, transgender men, transgender women, and non-binary people and their allies, will bring together top teams from nearly 30 cities across the country. The event is being welcomed to the D.C. area by the Chesapeake & Potomac Softball League (CAPS), the DC area’s LGBTQ softball league, members of which are serving as the hosting committee for the tournament.
“We are very excited to be heading to the D.C. area this year for the 2022 ASANA Softball World Series,” said ASANA Commissioner Angela Smith. “The Host Committee has been fantastic to work with to make sure this event is one of our best ever. I know all of our teams are looking forward to experiencing all there is to do and see in the area and playing some incredible softball along the way.”
“Having the bid to host the ASANA World Series before the pandemic, the DC community was eagerly anticipating the event,” said Tony Mace, Co-Chair of the DC Host Committee. “Little did we know that the world would shut down for over a year, but our Host City committee never stopped working to bring the best player experience for ASANA athletes and families. After three years in the making, the Host City committee and I are looking forward to welcoming the first players who arrive.”
For the fourth consecutive year, a selection of the tournament games, including all championship games, will be live-streamed in partnership with the Cloud Sports Network (CSN) through the ASANA Facebook page and YouTube channel. But, for the first time ever, those games will also be available to stream for free on OutVoices.us through an exclusive partnership agreement.
“Typically the ASANA Softball World Series will get anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 unique viewers each year just from the ASANA social media channels,” said Roman Jimenez. “That’s an already large and highly targeted audience who want to watch LGBTQ cis women, trans men, trans women, and non-binary softball players compete at the highest level. To be able to increase that audience by a factor of 3 or 4 as a result of our partnership with OutVoices.us is an incredible opportunity for a much larger portion of our community to be exposed to competitive sports by and for our community and our allies.”
For those who haven’t seen their coverage before, Jimenez cautions against having low expectations. “We’re not just a lone cell camera jury-rigged to a backstop,” he said. “We have multiple cameras, on-field microphones, on-screen graphics, instant replay, and professional broadcasters describing the action as it’s unfolding. We are as close to the Queer version of ESPN as you can get.”
The Cloud Sports broadcast team includes as its analyst ASANA Hall of Famer Rosalyn Bugg, who in addition to having competed as both a coach and player at the ASANA Softball World Series, is also the Commissioner of the Women’s + division of the Greater Los Angeles Softball Association (GLASA) and runs that division’s tournament at the Sin City Classic, the largest annual LGBTQ sporting event in the world. In 2022, Bugg was also inducted into the GLASA Hall of Fame. Describing the action play-by-play will be Jimenez, a veteran broadcaster and softball player, and coach who has helmed various championship teams for over 25 years. In 2019 Jimenez was inducted into the Hall of Fame in his hometown LGBTQ softball league in San Diego, America’s Finest City Softball League (AFCSL). In addition, both Bugg and Jimenez are championship-certified USA Softball umpires.
“Both Roman and I know the game,” said Bugg, “and we work great together as a team.”
As part of the 2021 ASANA Softball World Series broadcast, Bugg introduced player shout-outs to family members and friends who were watching the broadcast. This created an incredibly engaging atmosphere on the ASANA social platforms.
“I love highlighting not only the action on the field but also the players responsible for it,” Bugg said. “This tournament is all about the players and telling their stories is a privilege we take very seriously.”
The ASANA Softball World Series will consist of four divisions. The B Division is the highest level of skill and often includes players with a history of playing the fast-pitch version of the sport in high school or college level. The C Division includes players who, while highly skilled, aren’t quite at the same level as the B Division-caliber of players, or whose skills may have slowed with age. The D and E Divisions are for both newer players and for those who may have aged out of the higher divisions. Since many players have been playing in ASANA-affiliated associations for 20+ years, many will have experienced every division of play before settling into where their skills are currently best suited.
In total, nearly 3,000 athletes will be headed to D.C. for this year’s event and as you might guess, in addition to hundreds of volunteers, it takes a lot of money to make an event like the 2022 ASANA Softball World Series even possible. For that, both ASANA and the CAPS Host Committee have been engaging with sponsors to help offset costs.
“We want to thank our sponsors on both the national and local levels. Without them we couldn’t provide the experience we do for our players, their families, and for our fans,” said Smith. “We look forward to being able to share these experiences with them and with our live-streaming audience on our social channels and right here on OutVoices.us.”
Coverage begins Thursday, August 25th with early tournament play, continuing during “Elimination Friday” on August 26th all the way through to “Championship Saturday” on August 27th, when all four divisional championships will be broadcast. Stay tuned to this page for updates on game time and team announcements and to watch the games live.
ASANA — Amateur Sports Alliance of North America — was created in 2007 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of amateur athletics for all persons regardless of gender, age, race, creed, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation with a special emphasis on the participation of women, trans men, trans women, non-binary and agendered people.
The organization currently has 25 member cities across the United States and hosts the annual ASANA Softball World Series which brings together over 70 teams for a 4-day championship tournament. The World Series has four divisions to provide varying competitive levels of play, with "B" being the most skilled and the "E" supporting the most recreational.
6 Best Lesbian Romance Novels in 2022
The One Woman
To connect with stories involving gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer characters, you don't have to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community yourself. These new lesbian romance novels are a must-read for everyone, whether you're hoping to improve your ally skills or are just seeking a really awesome book. Check out our book recommendations now since they are DEFINITELY worth your time.
The One Woman By Laura May
The One Woman, a New sapphic romance novel by Laura May. Julie's life and her relationship with her partner Mark are routine in every way. That is until she meets Ann. Web developer Ann is a kind and beautiful person. It is impossible to deny Julie's feelings for Ann. The spark is genuine as their present and past converge in Barcelona. Julie has to choose between her love for Ann and her devotion to Mark when tragedy strikes. Will true love last the distance? You’ll find out in The One Woman.
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Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
Count Your Lucky Stars
Photo courtesy of Amazon
Margot receives the spotlight in Bellefleur's third book Written in the Stars even though she has no intention of entering a committed relationship herself. Margot has been experiencing severe fifth wheel vibes lately. But everything gets mixed up when she runs with her first love, Olivia, who is starting over in Seattle after her divorce. This is especially true when Margot gives Olivia a much-needed place to crash. Can Margot trust the girl who once broke her heart again?
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No Rings Attached by Rachel Lacey
No Rings Attached
Photo courtesy of Amazon
Bookseller Lia only made up having a girlfriend to get her mother to stop berating her, but now that her brother's wedding is quickly approaching, she is forced to stick to her narrative. Her best friend introduces her to Grace, who recently relocated to London, the location of the wedding, and accepts Lia's invitation to go on a date with her. But a series of mishaps (just one bed! ), especially when it comes time to say goodbye and they discover they're not at all prepared to do that, make it a weekend full of unpleasantness.
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In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae
In the Event of Love
Photo courtesy of Amazon
Morgan will have to take on an event in the small hometown she never wanted to see again in order to save her budding publicity career when an awful catastrophe threatens to destroy everything. The girl who crushed her heart after their first and only kiss, Rachel, is still in Fern Falls and has transformed into a seductive lumberjack, which only serves to worsen the situation. Morgan is the ideal candidate to help Rachel's family's tree farm since she can demonstrate that she is still at the top of her public relations game by organizing the world's greatest fundraiser.
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Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner
Mistakes Were Made
Photo courtesy of Amazon
With a sophomore that mocks the slow-burning face of their debut by opening with a hookup that'll have you fanning your face for days, Wilsner displays their serious romance range. The said connection involves Cassie, a senior in college, and Erin, an attractive older woman she meets at a pub and who Cassie soon discovers is the mother of one of her best friends. The delicate balancing act of keeping that night a secret while giving in to the sexiest chemistry either of them has ever felt begins, which is made much more difficult by the fact that they are going on a full break together. Can they say goodbye when their vacation comes to an end, or is there something here that they simply cannot ignore, no matter the price?
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I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
I Kissed Shara Wheeler
Photo courtesy of Amazon
Being named valedictorian of her high school has been Chloe Green's main motivation since she relocated from Southern California to a rural Alabama town. But when Shara Wheeler, her competitor for valedictorian, kisses her a month before graduation, Chloe is left looking for explanations—and Shara herself. Chloe will have to work with Shara's quarterback boyfriend and her bad-boy neighbor to decipher the cryptic notes they have each received in order to find out where she has gone. Can Shara be located and brought back in time for graduation?
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Diane Hayes is an online writer and editor.
LGBTQ+-affirming healthcare
Finding suitable healthcare can be difficult for everyone, but those in the LGBTQ+ community have an extra hurdle to contend with: finding a healthcare practitioner who is not only supportive of LGBTQ+ folk but also experienced in treatments that are more likely to be required by members of the community.
Everyone deserves to be able to access healthcare that suits them, so why is this often so hard for LGBTQ+ people to find?
Poor Training
Seven out of ten LGBTQ patients report having negative experiences while accessing healthcare, and this is completely unsurprising when you consider the shortage of healthcare practitioners who are well-versed in issues that are overrepresented in, or even exclusive to, the LGBTQ+ community.
Hormone replacement therapy, experience treating intersex patients, gender affirmation surgery, and HIV treatment and prevention are only a handful of things that a professional working closely with members of the LGBTQ+community should be experienced in and comfortable with, but how many are?
Unless your healthcare practitioner takes a particular interest in these areas or has significant experience in dealing with them, it’s likely that they have only spent a measly five hours studying LGBTQ+ issues as part of their medical training. This can create an unfortunate catch-22 situation where doctors do not feel comfortable treating these conditions, leading to avoidance and lack of opportunity to build up their knowledge and real-world experience.
Under-representation Of LGBTQ People In The Medical Community
While more comprehensive training would go some way to increasing access to high-quality healthcare for LGBTQ people, studying can only go so far; those with lived experience of the issues facing the LGBTQ+ community can offer insights and empathy that those outside the community cannot, despite their best efforts.
Stanford University conducted a study that found that 30 percent of medical students who were part of the LGBTQ+ community hid their sexual or gender identity. In addition, around 40 percent of medical students who self-identified as “not heterosexual” said that they were wary of facing discrimination. If we extrapolate this to healthcare professionals in the workplace, it’s not surprising that it can be hard for LGBTQ patients to find a practitioner who is also openly part of the community.
Encouraging more LGBTQ people to enter healthcare professions, and ensuring that those who are already working in healthcare feel able to embrace their sexuality or gender identity, are key to helping LGBTQ patients find healthcare that meets their needs.
Bias And Stereotypes
Whether intentional or subconscious, bias and harmful stereotypes are endemic throughout the medical community. “For example, from the moment you enter the waiting room and are handed paperwork asking your gender, with only male and female boxes available to tick, you can be made to feel unwelcome, misunderstood, and alienated,” explains Benita Martines, a journalist at OXEssays and Paperfellows.
Due to previous negative experiences, LGBTQ people can feel reluctant to offer information about their sexual orientation or gender to a healthcare provider. Equally, professionals can be wary of asking for this information in case it offends the patient. As this information can have a very real impact on medical decisions, it’s crucial that the medical community get comfortable with discussing these issues in a way that includes and empowers LGBTQ folk.
Lack of Transgender Care
“The National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force recently conducted a survey which revealed that a shocking 19 percent of trans and gender non-conforming people have been refused medical care,” explains Mark Dobbins, writer at Boomessays and UKWritings.
In addition, transphobic terminology is rife in the medical community and is often used without consideration of how unwelcome it can make trans patients feel. Worryingly, the same survey found that half of the respondents have had to explain some transgender-specific medical terms to healthcare professionals.
Although the healthcare industry has a long way to go in becoming inclusive, accessible, and supportive to members of the LGBTQ+ community, progress is being made. For example, John Hopkins University School of Medicine has updated its curriculum to help its graduates care for a more diverse range of patients.
In the meantime, finding a healthcare provider who is understanding and supportive of your needs can feel like an impossible task, but don’t give up; everyone deserves good healthcare, and there are some excellent LGBTQ+-friendly practitioners out there.
Madeline Miller is a writer at Academized, as well as a business development manager at Essay Services and State Of Writing.
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