Introduction to Affirming Care for Gender and Sexual Minorities
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Top Contributors - Ewa Jaraczewska, Kim Jackson, Jess Bell and Tarina van der Stockt
Introduction[edit | edit source]
In health care environment, LGBTQ+ adolescents and adults experience marginalisation, stigma and normative pressure resulting in their poor health and social outcomes. [1][2]This may be due to health care providers' lack of training and sensitivity to the health needs of LGBTQ+ people. [1] Healthcare workers resport being uncomfortable communicating with sexual and gender minority (SGMs) patients.[3] Additionally chronic stress related to marginalisation and discrimination contributes to the health care disparities among SGMs group. [4] They not only suffer poorer health, but also worse healthcare experiences.[2]Yet, their health care needs are well documented, as various reports indicate high rates of substance abuse, depression, suicide, and cardiovascular disease. [2]
Gender and sexual minorities live in every part of the world and comprise of all races and/or ethnicities, religions, and social classes. They require access to healthcare to meet their medical needs. At the same time the healthcare organisations must ensure that their environment is inclusive for LGBTQ+ patients by educating staff on cultural awareness and nondiscrimination policies.[5]
Gender-Neutral Language[edit | edit source]
To ensure that the cultural responsiveness in understanding the needs of LGBTQ+ is well present, there is a world wide movement towards development of more inclusive language. LGBTQ+ activists and linguists are working on creating entirely new non-binary terms and on changing already existing words and grammar constructions.[6]The following are examples of gender-neutral languagage changes that were introduced to English and other world languages:
- English: there was no distinction between genders except for singular pronoun, which can be masculine or feminine. In 2019 “they” was added as the pronoun to use for a “single person whose gender identity is non-binary.”[6]
- Spanish: all nouns has feminine and masculine cases. In daily conversations, the masculine “o” or the feminine “a” is now replaced with the gender-neutral “e” in certain words. [6]
- Arabic: each verb, noun and adjective has always assigned either a male or female case. Public awareness of gender-neutral language remains extremely low in Arabic-speaking countries, and there is low social tolerance of this language.[6]
- Hebrew: gender is assigned to verbs, nouns, and adjectives based on the noun. In gender-neutral language there is a default to a feminine plural or a “mixed” gender is used , sometimes male and sometimes female for the same person.[6]
- German: includes male, female and neutral grammatical genders, signified by the suffixes “r” or “rn” for men , and “in” or “innen” for women. In gender-neutral language, the uppercase "I" in compound nouns is used addressing both males and females at once. A "gender star" in form of an asterisk has also been added to include persons who do not consider themselves either."[6]
- French: uses male or female gender in all nouns referring to an individual. A first step in gender-neutral language was to use asterisks to combine case endings to create gender-neutral plural, example: “ami•e•s” for friends. [6]
- Sweden: the word “hen” was added to the official dictionary, which indicate a gender-neutral pronoun as an alternative to the male pronoun “han” and female “hon".[6]
Learn more about gender-neutral language here.
Gender and Sexual Minorities[edit | edit source]
LGB
TGNC
Cultural Competency[edit | edit source]
LGBTQIA+ Demographic[edit | edit source]
Resources[edit | edit source]
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References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wahlen R, Bize R, Wang J, Merglen A, Ambresin AE. Medical students’ knowledge of and attitudes towards LGBT people and their health care needs: Impact of a lecture on LGBT health. PloS one. 2020 Jul 1;15(7):e0234743.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Elliott MN, Kanouse DE, Burkhart Q, Abel GA, Lyratzopoulos G, Beckett MK, Schuster MA, Roland M. Sexual minorities in England have poorer health and worse health care experiences: a national survey. J Gen Intern Med. 2015 Jan;30(1):9-16.
- ↑ Hinchliff S, Gott M, Galena E. 'I daresay I might find it embarrassing': general practitioners' perspectives on discussing sexual health issues with lesbian and gay patients. Health Soc Care Community. 2005 Jul;13(4):345-53.
- ↑ Hughes TL, Jackman K, Dorsen C, Arslanian-Engoren C, Ghazal L, Christenberry-Deceased T, Coleman C, Mackin M, Moore SE, Mukerjee R, Sherman A, Smith S, Walker R. How can the nursing profession help reduce sexual and gender minority related health disparities: Recommendations from the national nursing LGBTQ health summit. Nurs Outlook. 2022 Apr 13:S0029-6554(22)00013-6.
- ↑ Goldhammer H, Maston ED, Kissock LA, Davis JA, Keuroghlian AS. National findings from an LGBT healthcare organizational needs assessment. LGBT health. 2018 Dec 1;5(8):461-8.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 A guide to how gender-neutral language is developing around the world. Available from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/12/15/guide-how-gender-neutral-language-is-developing-around-world/ [last access 6.6.2022]
- ↑ Stewart Maddux. Gen Silent, The LGBT Aging Documentary: Official Trailer. 2009. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV3O8qz6Y5g [last accessed 6/6/2022]
