Health

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New York jury finds psychologist and surgeon didn’t follow best practices in gender-affirming care case

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For the first time, a jury has ruled that a medical professionals who approved and performed gender-affirming surgery on a minor committed medical malpractice. The verdict came in a suit filed by Fox Varian, now 22, of Yorktown Heights, New York. At age 16, while identifying as a transgender male, Varian underwent a double mastectomy. Varian now regrets the surgery and identifies as female. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. She filed suit in 2023, saying her health care providers, psychologist Kenneth Einhorn and surgeon Simon […]

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Health insurance costs are up. Women and LGBTQ+ people are paying the price

Their health care premiums have skyrocketed. And now, women and LGBTQ+ people across the country are scrambling.  Some are pushing off paying for retirement, or dipping into their savings. Some are looking for extra work to afford plans that they aren’t sure will actually cover their health care bills. And some are planning to go without insurance, hoping they won’t get too sick to manage medical expenses on their own. The chaos and uncertainty are the result of a monthslong impasse, after Congress let subsidies lapse that would keep down the price of health insurance on the Affordable Care Act’s […]

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Gay Men, Ketamine and Trauma. A Therapy or a Trap?

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This story was produced with the support of MISTR, a telehealth platform offering free online access to PrEP, DoxyPEP, STI testing, Hepatitis C testing and treatment and long-term HIV care across the U.S. MISTR did not have any editorial input into the content of this story. This story talks about addiction and substance use. If you or someone you know needs help, resources can be found here. In 2015, on the patio of Nowhere Bar, a queer nightclub in Louisville, Kentucky, music pulsed and bodies pressed as 23-year-old Lucas Pearson moved through the flashing lights and a blur of grinding limbs. “I […]

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‘Deeply concerning’: Drug and alcohol deaths significantly higher among queer people, study finds

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Drug and alcohol related deaths are significantly higher among queer people, a “deeply concerning” study has found.  The findings come from analysis by the Office for National Statistics in the UK, which cross-referenced 2021 census data with death registrations between March 2021 and November 2024.  Multiple studies have revealed that LGB+ people are disproportionately affected by addictions, including alcoholism and drug use. The study specifically used the definer LGB+. According to the study, suicide and drug and alcohol overdoses are among the most significant causes of death for members of the LGB+ community.  The study revealed that there were nearly three times as many “drug poisoning” […]

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Transgender youth who receive hormone therapy are less suicidal: study

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There’s simply no denying that gender-affirming care is life-saving. Transgender youth who are able to access hormone replacement therapy are less likely to be suicidal, according to a report recently published in The Journal of Pediatrics. Researchers surveyed 432 patients ages 12 to 20 over 679 days, finding that “suicidality significantly declined from pretreatment to post-treatment” across all sexes, ages, and treatment durations. “HT was associated with clinically meaningful reductions in suicidality over time, extending prior findings with a larger sample and longer follow-up,” the report concludes. “These study findings provide clinical evidence supporting the mental health benefits of timely access to HT in this population.” Hormone […]

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Gay doctor who resigned from CDC over “radical non-transparency” will lead historic health org

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Dr. Demetre Daskalakis – who was among several employees who publicly resigned from a leadership position at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August – is returning to the local health sector. He has been appointed Chief Medical Officer for the historic NYC health organization, Callen-Lorde Community Health Center. “My career has taken me from local to federal,” the out physician told health and science publication STAT10 after his appointment. “This is when it’s time to go back to local.” “Demetre has a wealth of experience that will help him guide Callen-Lorde through new clinical initiatives and challenges while remaining steadfast to our mission to care for our communities regardless of ability to pay,” Callen-Lorde […]

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What is ‘hopecore’ and how can it make life better for LGBTQ+ people?

The social media landscape has become a toxic wasteland full of conspiracy theories, alt-right pipelines, ragebait, and meaningless consumerism.  The real world is already a dark and overwhelming place, and now we also spend way too much time doomscrolling on our phones, where we’re fed all of this toxicity. This is where the “hopecore” trend comes in. A shining beacon of optimism in a sea of toxic sludge, hopecore is using social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to inspire a positive outlook on life. Since we could all use a little of that in our lives, we talked to Will Dempsey, a […]

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The sex ed you get depends on your ZIP code — and your state’s politics

Faith Fluker’s cousin was a 14-year-old cheerleader and magnet school student when she became pregnant last year. She didn’t have to be such a young mom; she just lacked the means to avoid teen parenthood, Fluker said. “She fell pregnant because she didn’t have access to reproductive health resources, and she didn’t have transportation to end the pregnancy, which is what she wanted to do,” said Fluker, an Auburn University senior who champions reproductive rights as part of her work with Advocates for Youth, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. “The lack of sex education in Alabama has led to […]

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U.S. bishops officially ban gender-affirming care at Catholic hospitals

U.S. Catholic bishops voted Wednesday to make official a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals. The step formalizes a yearslong process for the U.S. church to address transgender health care. From a Baltimore hotel ballroom, the bishops overwhelmingly approved revisions to their ethical and religious directives that guide the nation’s thousands of Catholic health care institutions and providers. More than one in seven patients in the U.S. are treated each day at Catholic hospitals, according to the Catholic Health Association. Catholic hospitals are the only medical center in some communities. Major medical groups and health organizations […]

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What public health experts want you to know about the severe mpox strain appearing in the U.S.

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A more severe strain of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has quietly appeared in California, and for the first time, the infections weren’t brought here by travelers. For the nation’s LGBTQ+ communities, the news is unsettling not only because of what it says about the virus, but also because of what it reveals about a public health system in crisis. The strain began to spread in the spring of 2024 in people who had traveled outside the United States. In an interview with The Advocate, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and the Bidenadministration’s White House deputy coordinator for […]

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