Many LGBTQIA+ individuals choose to not disclose their gender identity to their medical providers for a multitude of reasons. Some fear that their medical care provider will not treat them the same or refuse to treat their medical conditions at all because of who they are and what they believe. Some states continue to push laws and regulations that allow doctors to pick and choose who they treat- even leaving out certain humans with specific disabilities (Texas, 2020; Texas.gov).
This research study was done to study how many LGBTQIA+ individuals were disclosing their gender identity to their medical providers who were outside of any specialized gender center; or where the focus is not solely for the LGBTQIA+ community. To read more about this specific research study, please use the link here, or in the “Resources Used” section at the bottom.
Transgender Youth’s Disclosure of Gender Identity to Providers Outside of Specialized Gender Centers
For many transgendered youths, being acknowledged by their chosen name and pronouns helped to ease the comfort level with their medical professionals. When these professionals use the youths’ dead names, or refuse to treat them as who they are, this causes am almost immediate breakdown in the medical care for this person.
The lack of steps taken to ensure that all human individuals are receiving the healthcare and medical professionalism they deserve is indeed something that needs to be addressed in our country, sooner rather than later.
Citations:
Journal of Adolescent Health- https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(19)30931-0/fulltext#articleInformation