The Observation Deck

I don't want to get political, theological, or even controversial here, but...

I was listening to Pandora over the weekend and heard an ad for the opening of the new Lakewood Health Clinic which proclaimed that they will "specialize in LGBT care".

I'm actually wondering if this is a new level of medical certification, or if this is just a marketing nod to political correctness.

is "LGBT care" an actual thing? and, if so, what specialized training, equipment, or facilities are required to make such a claim? and, if so, are we the only clinic in the area with this specialized focus?

I'm honestly curious. (legitimately puzzled, yes) but, honestly curious.

The Clinic has this information posted. Not sure if it answers your question but it does show their objective:

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/about/co ... gbt-health

thanks for the link.

but I'm still a bit confused. Not being a medical practitioner, I'm still not sure what they mean when they say "Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients have historically been an underserved community with unique health needs."

unique health needs? Are there differences of basic human physiology due specifically to sexual orientation?

I'm not trying to be fecetious, I'm actually curious if this is a whole new area of medical specialization. Because if there are actual, specific medical issues related only to this differentiation, this could potentially change much of the surrounding discussion similar to the research into genomic proclivity to such things as chemical or gambling addiction.

Brett -

There are significant disparities in health needs for the LGBTQ community compared with the general population. The most well-known is the increased incidence/prevalence of HIV infection, however there are many others, including transgender-specific physical health needs, and significantly increased rates of obesity, substance abuse and suicide, for example. Fortunately strides are being made to address the lack of cultural competence in the medical community around these issues as they specifically impact LGBTQ patients.

A few years ago, my organization had an all-day forum on issues that elderly LGBTQ persons face, particularly in health care. Some of the panelists who spoke had stories that brought me to tears. One transgender panelists said staff during a hospitalization would refer to him as ‘it’ because the staff could not be bothered to ask him what his gender preference was. The panelist generally agreed that a lifetime of experiences with insensitive and/or bigoted health care staff resulted in them delaying health care. I would guess a specialty clinic would go a long way to allay some of their fears.

Bret Callentine wrote:I'm actually wondering if this is a new level of medical certification, or if this is just a marketing nod to political correctness.

Health disparities in the LGBTQ community are very real, but they need to be dealt with through greater sensitivity and awareness in the entire healthcare system.
The Lakewood Health Center "LGBTQ specialization" was part of the Clinic's cynical marketing shtick during the hospital debate.

As some might recall, racist Tom Bullock (recent loser of two elections in six months) was leader of the anti-hospital political arm during one of the Issue 64 campaigns.
He pushed the "LGBTQ" angle in some Team Summers' media outlets, implying that those opposed to hospital closure were anti-gay.

How cynical was that?
Well, a couple years later Bullock teamed up with homophobe Martin Sweeney, who smeared gay rights groups as "special interests" that injected "dark money" into Nickie Antonio's campaign.

I thought Antonio was working hard for LGBTQ care in Lakewood and therefore stood with Summers. Then Summers backed Sweeney and Stonewall Dems did, too.

dl meckes wrote:I thought Antonio was working hard for LGBTQ care in Lakewood and therefore stood with Summers. Then Summers backed Sweeney and Stonewall Dems did, too.

I recall the Stonewall Dems endorsed Nickie and Bullock. I have found that intersectionality seems lost on legacy groups like Stonewall and Emily's list. Both need to rethink their missions lest they both become quickly irrelevant.

And Mike, I agree that changes need to be made system wide on how LGBTQ persons are cared for and agree this initiative was part a cynical attempt to get more buy-in on the whole scam. That said, any safer health care space for this population is critical until larger system changes can be made.

I'll say again that anything the Clinic does that it is additive to the community, within the bounds of legal and political propriety, is good. The LGBTQ services fall into that category, IMO.
Having said that, they have done an awful lot of subtracting around here.