Percent of physicians who identify as lgbtq

Prominent Medical Practitioners Who Name as LGBTQ

Recent research reports suggest that finding doctors competent to care for LGBTQ patients is becoming increasingly more difficult. It is therefore worth looking at the presence of LGBTQ medical practitioners who have made, or are making, an important contribution to this professional field.

Whereas LGBTQ individuals may suffer the same medical conditions as society as a whole, it is known that their outcomes are worse. A enormous part of this is because few doctors determine themselves as knowledgeable and culturally competent with the community, and few hospitals have programs to prepare staff about the characteristics of the community. It is only in recent years that professional medical associations began accepting and recognizing the presence of LGBTQ physicians. Two-thirds of doctors report having heard derogatory comments about the LGBTQ community in the workplace, and one third had witnessed discriminatory concern of an LGBTQ patient.

Thirty percent of LGBTQ medical students in western countries, and two thirds of gender minority students, hide their sexual self during medical school based on their fear of discri

The Data Trail

From a medical perspective, it seems appreciate a no-brainer.

“Someone’s sexual orientation and gender identity are a core part of who they are,” says Identify Schuster, MD ’88, founding dean and CEO of the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. “Clinicians should concern for the whole patient and should make an effort to understand each patient in the context of their own life.” But for some LGBTQ patients, disclosing information about such matters to health professionals is considerably less straightforward.

Schuster understands both sides of this complicated issue surpass than most physicians. In remarks he delivered in 2010 at what was then Children’s Hospital Boston, and published in 2012 in Academic Pediatrics, Schuster described speaking at his exclude mitzvah a few decades earlier, recalling that he had thought to himself, “I am a lgbtq+ standing in front of all these people.” He realized that speaking the words out loud would have been unacceptable in his home, his college, or any place he knew, adding that he “could not have conceived” of telling his physician. “The idea that I would someday be fit to stand in an auditorium, stand anyw

In an impromptu listing of all the diseases his children had, I never would have guessed that the next word to enter out of my attending’s mouth was “gay.” As an LGBTQ+ medical trainee with scars on my chest to prove it, this encounter only added to the collection of instances where I felt the weight of organism underrepresented in medicine. Or am I?

Each year, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) publishes a report, the U.S. Physician Workforce Statistics Dashboard, that details the demographics of the physician workforce across all specialties. In 2023, 11.9% of our almost 990,000 physicians self-identified as being one of the obeying races/ethnicities: American Indian or Alaska Native; Black or African American; Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish origin; or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. The AAMC labels these groups of people as underrepresented in medicine (URiM), a definition strictly reserved for the discussion of race and ethnicity, a definition last revised in 2004.

In further studying the data in this report, we notice that the percentage of female physicians is prominently displayed alongside the breakdown of races and ethnicities; howe

percent of physicians who identify as lgbtq

In the Margins: Addressing provider attitudes

A lady goes to the emergency room because she’s experiencing abdominal pain. She’s nervous and terrified. She doesn’t want to be there but understands the importance of seeking out tend when able. A physician arrives at her bedside to ask some routine questions.

“Are you pregnant?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s do a pregnancy test to be certain.”
“But doctor, there’s no chance I could be pregnant. I’m gay.”

Too often, LGBTQ+ individuals are met with dismissive and at times probing questions when they go to the doctor— making an already vulnerable moment more complicated. These situations can construct it hard for Gay patients to express their health concerns to their primary care physicians. From having the courage to “come out” to educating their physician on terminology that is comfortable for them, it can be exhausting.

While all patients should feel empowered to advocate for their take care, why do so many LGBTQ+ individuals experience physician visits that leave them uncomfortable or unheard? Is ther

LGBT+ People’s Health Status and Access to Care

Background

The share of people in the United States who identifies as LGBT+ has increased substantially in recent years, particularly among younger generations, yet health disparities and health access-related challenges persist across multiple dimensions. Understanding the health care needs and experiences of the more than 7% of LGBT+-identified people in the Together States, including the one-in-five younger adults from Generation Z, is important for addressing barriers and facilitating access to care and coverage.

While in some areas, the health experiences of LGBT+ people mirror those of their non-LGBT+ counterparts, studies have set up that this population experiences certain challenges at higher rates than those who identify as heterosexual and cisgender, challenges which intersect with factors beyond sexual orientation and gender identity to comprise race/ethnicity, class, nationality, and age, among other aspects of identity. Recognizing this, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identified sexual and gender minorities as a “health disparity population” to motivate and support investigate in this area. Further, the Biden ad