Researchers from San Francisco and Seattle have found that Doxy PEP is an effective strategy in reducing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) like gonorrhea, chlamydia, or syphilis. Doxycycline is an antibiotic traditionally used for other bacterial infections like acne and malaria, but when used as a post-exposure prophylactic within three days after unprotected sex, it reduces infections by more than 60%.
Can you take doxycycline to prevent STDs?
A clinical study conducted with the San Francisco Department of Health (SFDPH), Zuckerberg San Francisco General, University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Washington ended early when they found Doxy PEP to be effective among 554 men who have sex with men and transgender women living with HIV or taking an HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
“PrEP transformed HIV prevention, and I think that Doxy PEP is going to transform STI prevention in a similar way,” says Hyman Scott, MD, MPH, Medical Director of San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Until now, STI prevention strategies have been mostly behavioral, like wearing a condom or engaging in non-penetrative sex. Infection rates for STIs, mainly syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia, have been rising for the last decade and increased even further during the COVID-19 epidemic. Syphilis cases increased by 26% from 2020 to 2021, the highest number since 1991. Gonorrhea and chlamydia are also on the rise. While these bacterial STIs can be spread through childbirth and breastfeeding, unprotected sex is one of the main paths to infection–and it’s on the rise.
While PrEP protects up to 99% against HIV, it doesn’t prevent other STIs. Further, HIV PrEP roll-out has been slow due to cost and access issues, but doxycycline won’t have the same problem. It’s an inexpensive medication that healthcare providers have been prescribing for years to treat acne and malaria. Now, it’s going to have a new purpose: slowing down the global rate of sexually transmitted infections.
Some cases of syphilis lead to hearing loss. Trachoma is a disease caused by the chlamydia bacteria and causes more vision loss and blindness than any other infection in the world. In under-resourced areas like sub-Saharan Africa, lack of access to proper health screenings and medication can perpetuate infections among those living in poverty and without proper public health resources.
“In retrospect, we’ve slow-walked PrEP rollout across the country, and we shouldn’t slow-walk Doxy PEP rollout. We’re still trying to play catch up with increasing access and addressing inequities in PrEP uptake. We have the opportunity to do things differently with Doxy PEP,” says Scott.
The Doxy PEP clinical trial findings were shared this summer at the International AIDS Conference to an audience of expecting medical and health professionals. 554 participants randomized to doxycycline PEP (Doxy PEP) had a 66% (HIV-negative and on PrEP) and 62% (PLWH) reduction in STIs compared to those randomized to standard care and no Doxy PEP. The STIs that were studied include syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia.
How often do I take doxycycline for STIs?
In October, the San Francisco Department of Health followed up their study by publishing recommendations and guidelines on how to offer Doxy PEP for those at risk of contracting STIs. However, recommended protocol at the federal level has not happened yet. Providers in other cities across America are hesitant to offer doxycycline without from the CDC, who has released considerations but not yet a guideline. According to San Francisco’s guidelines, “200 mg of doxycycline should be taken ideally within 24 hours but no later than 72 hours after condomless oral, anal or vaginal sex.” Doxycycline is safe enough to take daily, depending on the frequency of unprotected sex, but no more than 200 mg should be taken within 24 hours.
Where can I get Doxy PEP?
Magnet, San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s sexual health clinic, is actively providing Doxy PEP as a safe and effective tool to prevent STIs to Magnet clients. It’s also available at San Francisco City Clinic. Even if your local clinic or provider isn’t offering it, it’s important for those at risk for contracting STIs to ask their doctors or clinicians.
“We want people to be empowered. Not everyone can wait in line for five hours to get a vaccine, but that doesn’t mean they’re at any less risk of acquiring an STI,” Scott adds concerning the equity is who has access to sexual health programs.
As soon as Team Trans’ hockey players first stepped onto the ice four years ago, they felt something life-changing. They’d found a family for life.
Mason LeFebvre joined Team Trans, an international collective of trans and non-binary hockey players, for its first event in Boston in November 2019. They played off against Boston Pride Hockey, an LGBTQ+ team that’s been around since the early 90s.
It meant to a lot to Mason, who’d been playing hockey since he was 10. Finally, he was “getting to play with other people who had similar experiences”.
“Up to that point in my life, I’d only ever played with, as far as I was aware, cis people,” he tells PinkNews. “It was just about wanting to have that experience, to get to know other trans hockey players, because I hadn’t been able to do that.”
Goalie Mason LeFebvre says he never experienced the “concept of found family” until he joined Team Trans. (Ian DeGraff/Ian Steven Photography)
Team Trans primarily plays internal draft tournaments all over North America, with all-trans teams playing against each other.
It relies on donations to fund travel and hosting events. The National Hockey League (NHL) is a supporter, both financially and vocally, defending the club on social media from bigotry.
Having begun as a collective of a few players, it has over the years involved hundreds of players, who’ve formed tight bonds.
“I hadn’t experienced the concept of found family until I joined Team Trans, and now my found family is a couple hundred people strong,” Mason says. “I’ve invited these players to come stay with me in my house for a weekend at events we’re hosting or just an open ended invitation in general.”
When they’re together, Mason says, it “almost doesn’t matter” that they’re trans – they can simply exist as people. That 2019 event sparked a deep love within him for Team Trans, and he stuck with the club for years, eventually joining its board.
Mason LeFebvre and Danny Maki say they found a network of friends through Team Trans. (Ian DeGraff/Ian Steven Photography)
Danny Maki grew up in a “hockey family”. He started skating at age 2 – his parents tried to put figure skates on him, but he “absolutely hated them” – he wanted to play hockey like his older brothers.
They joined Team Trans through a hockey community in Minnesota after being off the ice for about 10 years.
“It was amazing, especially because when I joined I was already going through a hard time, and I didn’t have any trans friends that I could reach out to,” Danny says. “I was like hockey has always been good for me. I’ll start doing that again.”
Danny ended up becoming the vice president of the Twin Cities chapter. It’s “opened up possibilities for meeting tons of people” and “going places” that he never thought of before.
The locker room is often a serious obstacle for trans people, and Danny says one of his favourite things is being able to be comfortable with others in such a space.
“I drove together with one person to Toronto, and she’s never been able to show in the locker room before,” Maki says.
“She was able to do that without worry, and I was able to do that because nobody’s gonna care what I look like naked. Nobody gives a s**t, and just the general joy of – we didn’t do super well in Toronto – of still having fun.”
Mason LeFebvre says it was “powerful” to connect with the NHL because it made him realise “what an impact” Team Trans has “just by existing”. (Ian DeGraff/Ian Steven Photography)
There’s been some sadly predictable backlash to Team Trans, and Danny was mentioned in a few articles after getting injured on the ice. The headlines ran with the usual anti-trans voices disparaging trans inclusion in sports.
Danny describes these “nasty articles” as “absolute rubbish” that is “putting a target on us”. However, they fuel him to “keep pushing forward and keep representing the possibilities for trans individuals”.
“I imagine a young trans kid who loves hockey, they could see that we as Team Trans exist and will be available to them once they turn 18 (as of our policies right now),” they say.
“This negative media, as cruddy and at times hurtful as it is, will not stop me from playing the sport I love and the sport that has kept me alive more times than I like to admit.”
Mason feels the same – he’s energised too by the support and love coming from within the community and allies.
One of his highlights was received an email from the NHL, which wanted to film a Team Trans event he recalls thinking: “Holy s**t.”
“That was one of the most powerful things because it helped me realise what an impact we can and are having just by existing and showing there are more than just the 16 of us that originally showed up in Boston.”
After a long period of restoration, one of Italy’s most famous archaeological treasures — the House of the Vettii — is reopening to the public.
The house’s extensive collection of fresco wall paintings includes lots of erotic art. But while some commenters have claimed that the house’s original owners were preoccupied with sex or even running a brothel, a gay Roman historian has said that those claims show a misunderstanding about the role queer sex played in ancient Rome.
The house was originally constructed for two freed male slaves who were likely owned by the same master. These men became wealthy from selling wine, and their now-famous house included numerous scenes of sex and mythology, painted on wet plaster and preserved in wax.
Mount Vesuvius buried the house in volcanic ash in 79 AD, but it has since been restored, giving art history fans a time capsule of wealthy Roman social life.
The house’s entrance includes an image of Priapus, the god of fertility and abundance, showing off an uncut penis that’s as long and thick as his arm. It rests upon a scale, balanced by a bag filled with money. Other scenes show different couples having sex.
João Florêncio, a gay researcher who examines visual depictions of sexual cultures throughout history, says that it’s a mistake to assume that Roman men resembled modern-day gay men just because they owned art of a well-hung god and often had sex with other men.
“Roman sexuality was not framed in terms of the gender of partners but in terms of power,” he added. “An adult free man could have sex as the penetrating partner with anyone of a lower social status—including women or slaves and sex workers of both genders.”
The researcher said that evidence of same-sex intercourse has been preserved in Pompeii’s sexually explicit artifacts and graffiti, but a lot of it has been disavowed or at least purified by mainstream modern culture. A lot of these artifacts were designated as “pornography” and moved to “secret museums” in the early 1800s.
While a modern man wouldn’t likely display the image of a well-endowed man in his home unless he was gay, Florêncio points out that phallic imagery in Roman culture was associated with machismo. Some men might have desired Priapus’s large dong, but far more men would’ve likely envied it for their own, as a sign of their own potency and power.
Florêncio also noted that, while some historians believe the house doubled as a brothel, he said the sexual images may have just functioned as domestic symbols of power, wealth, and culture, especially since sex wasn’t taboo in Roman culture. Indeed, images of sex were “everywhere in Rome, including in literary and visual arts,” he writes.
LGBTQ Victory Fund, the only national organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ leaders to public office, named Danica Roem a 2023 LGBTQ ‘Spotlight’ candidate, a designation given to candidates with exceptional potential to be national leaders of the LGBTQ equality movement.
Roem, who currently serves in the Virginia House of Delegates, made history in 2017 when she became the first out-and-seated trans state legislator in American history. There are currently just nine trans state lawmakers serving in the U.S., according to LGBTQ Victory Institute.
“Danica is a remarkable leader who consistently shows both grit and compassion when delivering results for her community, from improving Virginia’s infrastructure to fighting for reproductive rights. As bigots in Richmond continue to introduce anti-LGBTQ bills – most of which target trans kids – we know Danica will not back down. We are proud to continue supporting Danica and are confident that come November, she will shatter yet another lavender ceiling and become the first trans person ever elected to a state Senate in the South,” said Mayor Annise Parker, President & CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund.
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LGBTQ Victory Fund
LGBTQ Victory Fund works to achieve and sustain equality by increasing the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials at all levels of government while ensuring they reflect the diversity of those they serve. Since 1991, Victory Fund has helped thousands of openly LGBTQ candidates win local, state and federal elections.
When Gad Yola hit the red carpet on December 20th, 2022, the 34-year-old Peruvian drag queen wanted to make a statement. Nearly 6,000 miles away from her home, Yola was far from the political crisis unfolding across Peru. So on her white dress, she bedazzled the words “25 Peruvians killed by the state”—a reference to the number of people who had died since protests erupted across the Andean nation.
Her dress quickly went viral on Twitter, and she received both messages of support and hate from Peruvians around the globe. Her artistic gesture is just one example of how LGBTQ+ Peruvians are making their voices heard in a political crisis that has persisted for nearly two months.
On December 7, 2022, former President Pedro Castillo rocked Peru’s democracy. Facing a vote for his impeachment, Castillo attempted a “self-coup”—a complete power grab by someone already in power. With trembling hands, the embattled president announced to the nation that he was unilaterally dissolving Congress and would rule the country by decree.
For Peruvians, this announcement was shocking, but it was not unprecedented. More than 20 years ago, former President Alberto Fujimori successfully pulled off this political machination and remained in power for another eight years. Fujimori, though, had the backing of the National Police of Peru and the Peruvian Armed Forces before he made this risky move; neither institution backed Castillo.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/nXyFgvCfyHI?feature=oembedPedro Castillo reads a statement announcing his decision to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.
Shortly after the announcement, ministers in his cabinet resigned, members of his political party, Peru Libre, denounced him, and his Vice President, Dina Boluarte, condemned the move. A couple of hours later, Congress successfully voted to impeach Castillo. Castillo was arrested and brought to a detention facility when he tried to seek asylum in the Mexican embassy; he currently remains in pre-trial detention.
Later that day, Boluarte was sworn in as President, and many members of Congress celebrated the ouster of an opponent they sparred with for the entire duration of his presidency.
Their celebration was short-lived.
On December 8th, just one day after Castillo’s arrest, protests began to sprout around the country.
Castillo was Peru’s 5th president in five years. He was also the first president to be of a peasant and indigenous background. His ouster, and Boluarte’s subsequent rightward shift, was taken as a sign by the historically marginalized groups of Peru that the country’s democracy is not an institution that works for them. Many believe Castillo was a victim of a conservative Congress hellbent on preventing an indigenous person from ruling effectively.
So they took to the streets.
In cities and towns all over Peru, aggrieved protesters began marching to demand political change. Their demands included the following: President Boluarte’s resignation, a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution, earlier elections, and for some, the liberation of Castillo.
From Cusco to Lima, protesters have been demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the state of their country. They have set up roadblocks and taken over airports. And in one case, a politician’s home was set on fire. Meanwhile, police have killed 46 people, some of whom were medics and bystanders, and injured dozens of others. One police officer was also killed due to the unrest, and at least ten people died in ambulances after being unable to reach hospitals due to blockades.
In addition to the anti-establishment protests, there have also been marches billed as “Marcha Por La Paz” or “March for the Peace.” These peace marches are right-wing and pro-police. And due to the march’s collaboration with the police, they have often inflamed tensions between the two sides.
Despite the assumption that LGBTQ+ rights are a left-wing cause, supporters and queer Peruvians are spread across the political spectrum. The political crisis has divided members of the queer community about how to resolve an increasingly intractable conflict.
Shortly after Boluarte was sworn-in, several LGBTQ+ activists and organizations condemned the violence at protests calling for her resignation.
Promsex, one of Peru’s most prominent LGBTQ+ and intersex rights groups, addressed the new president in a statement on Twitter.
“We demand that the Executive Branch guarantee the safety of all people, including that of law enforcement personnel, and that there be no more deaths in the democratic and legitimate exercise of the right to protest,” the organization tweeted.
However, since that statement was released, the violence has escalated, and so has the intensity of statements from left-wing LGBTQ+ groups. On January 21st, the Lima Pride March Collective released a statement calling for one of the primary demands of the anti-Boluarte protestors—new elections.
“As LGBTI people, we demand a prompt democratic exit [from this crisis] through the advancement of elections in the shortest term possible,” the statement said.
The Collective changed their name on Twitter to #NuevasEleccionesYa (new elections now), accompanied by the Peruvian and pride flags.
Jorge Apolaya, a spokesperson for the group, spoke to LGBTQ Nation about why he supports the marches.
“[LGBTQ+] organizers have the responsibility to speak out and denounce what is contrary to democracy and therefore to the rights of LGBT people,” he told LGBTQ Nation. “The government of the current president Dina Boluarte has become repressive and violent in the face of legitimate protests in the country. We cannot allow more deaths, and that is why there is a social consensus in the request for the resignation of the current president.”
Jorge (right) at the protests at Plaza San Martin in Lima.
The consensus does not extend to all LGBTQ+ Peruvians. La Liga Libertad, a classically liberal group founded by LGBTQ+ people, has called the protesters’ demands, including the demand for Boluarte to resign, “anti-democratic.” They have described protesters’ attempts to take over national airports as “terrorism,” echoing Boluarte’s characterization of the ongoing unrest.
La Liga Libertad did not respond to LGBTQ Nation’s request for comment.
It is not only left-wing LGBTQ+ groups who favor Boluarte’s resignation. Popular Action (Acción Popular) is a centrist political party. One of its members, queer activist Manuel Siccha, spoke with LGBTQ Nation.
“Currently, the position [of the Party] is to request the resignation of President Dina Boluarte based on her lack of legitimacy to govern,” Siccha said. “You cannot govern without social legitimacy and she alone has been losing legitimacy little by little with the decisions she has made from actions which are dehumanizing and authoritarian.”
Siccha also told LGBTQ Nation that he believes the Boluarte administration does not have the capacity to respond to the urgent political needs and the agendas of vulnerable populations, including LGBTQ+ populations.
The division among the queer community is also visible among Peru’s two out members of Congress. Although both voted for Castillo’s impeachment in December, they diverge significantly in how they approach the conflict.
Susel Paredes is the first out lesbian to win a congressional election in Peru. A progressive member of Congress, she voted against giving Boluarte’s cabinet a vote of confidence two weeks ago due to the more than 50 deaths which have occurred since protests first broke out.
Alejandro Cavero, a conservative congressman from the Avanza Pais political party, has said he is “LGBT and proudly of the right.” While Cavero said he understands the “frustration and indignation of the South,” he also praised police reactions to the violent protests.
A Twitter interaction between Members of Peruvian Congress Paredes and Cavero shows the two arguing about an incident that occurred at San Marcos University on January 21, 2023.
Other LGBTQ+ Peruvians who spoke with LGBTQ Nation expressed a similar sentiment to Cavero.
“It’s definitely a midway support,” said Vero Mourou when asked if she supports the protests. Mourou is a drag artist from Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon. Like Cavero, she is sympathetic to the plight of the poor and indigenous Peruvians protesting. However, she blames the “communist left” for taking advantage of the situation.
“[The left] has caused innocent people to die like a cannonball for their own political interests, such as the constituent assembly. They use their pain and suffering for political purposes. I am against any act of violence disguised as protest…we cannot allow anarchy in Peru.”
As Peruvians inside the country express varying opinions on this conflict, many Peruvians abroad are also speaking out, including Yola. Based in Madrid, Yola spoke with LGBTQ Nation about why she supports the protests.
“Dina Boluarte has committed crimes against humanity, has murdered in the name of a false democracy that does not represent the inhabitants of the country, both in the provinces and in the capital,” she said.
Yola acknowledges that some on the left are homophobic and transphobic, including the former president. However, she believes that certain struggles must come before LGBTQ+ rights.
“Many gay people…do not see beyond the privileged reality of Lima, because they do not see that before being gay or lesbian, they are brown, descendants of indigenous people, of black people, that the agenda against the fight against poverty in the regions is, honestly, more relevant than same-sex marriage.”
Gad Yola wears a dress that says: “25 Peruvians killed by the state.”
One of the most conservative countries in South America, Peru does not have a stellar record on LGBTQ+ rights. Regardless of the outcome of this political crisis, the situation for queer and trans Peruvians is unlikely to change dramatically. However, as the nation struggles through nearly two months of unrest, LGBTQ+ Peruvians continue to make their voices heard and fight for their future.
I’m a teacher and writer, loves of mine since I was six. I went to film school to study storytelling, media violence, its effects on society, and root causes of real-life violence and crime. This research guides my values, civic engagement, and work in our classrooms.
I was born in Midwest City—where my mother lives as a retired registered nurse—and I’ve lived in OKC’s historic Paseo neighborhood since 2010, serving in Oklahoma City Public Schools at Jefferson Middle School as an AVID college preparation teacher, where I helped students strengthen their reading, writing, group work, organization, and critical thinking skills. The same year I started teaching with OKCPS in 2015, Mayor Mick Cornett appointed me to serve on OKC’s Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority (COTPA) Board of Trustees.
As a transit trustee, I learned 79 percent of OKC’s roads ranked as “poor or mediocre condition.” Two years after my appointment, I wrote an editorial for NonDoc, asking my OKC neighbors to vote “yes” on our 2017 general obligation (GO) bond package and MAPS 3 penny sales tax extension. GO bond votes occur only every 10 years, offering a rare opportunity for residents to invest our property taxes into city infrastructure—including rebuilding crumbling streets—so students, workers, and seniors can move safely around our neighborhoods and city. This investment is important because, otherwise, OKC relies on sales tax as our primary funding source. Together with the extension of MAPS 3’s 2009 temporary penny sales tax, we called this election Better Streets, Safer City.
With the NonDoc editorial, I argued Better Streets would put our people to work, investing in critical infrastructure improvements for our streets, sidewalks, bridges, bike lanes, libraries, drainage system, public transportation system, parks and recreational facilities, our civic center, our downtown arena, our fire and police-training facilities, our traffic control system, and our city maintenance facilities. These investments, I wrote, strengthen our city, improving our residents’ quality of life.
Voters agreed, approving nearly $800 million in historic street improvements and other infrastructure projects, including our upcoming Bus Rapid Transit service.
Starting Fall 2023, Northwest Rapid will provide public transportation from covered bus stations every 15-20 minutes—7 days a week—for the first time in OKC’s history. This service builds on OKC’s past, running from downtown along our old streetcar route on Classen Boulevard, travelling west on NW Expressway, and turning around at Expressway and Meridian at a new park-and-ride near Lake Hefner.
2017’s Better Streets, Safer City also includes revitalization of Ward 2’s historic Belle Isle Library, $10 million in attainable, affordable, median-income housing for our city’s workforce, and streetscape improvements for historic commercial corridors such as Paseo, Uptown 23rd District, 39th Street District.
The next year in 2018, I fought for and worked with my transit board to provide Sunday bus service from our annual budget for the first time since the 1964 Voting Rights and 1965 Civil Rights Acts. On five bus routes, we added our city’s first night service til midnight.
LGBTQ Victory Fund, the only national organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ leaders to public office, named Nick Hellyar and Mario Castillo 2023 LGBTQ ‘Spotlight’ candidates, a designation given to candidates with exceptional potential to be national leaders of the LGBTQ equality movement. Hellyar is running for Houston City Council, At-Large, Position 2 and Castillo is running for Houston City Council, District H.
Robert Gallegos is currently the only out LGBTQ elected official in Houston, according to LGBTQ Victory Institute. Since Council Member Gallegos is not running for reelection, the city is now at risk of losing LGBTQ representation in city government for the first time since 1998.
“Nick and Mario represent the best of Houston. They firmly believe that government works best when it reflects the diversity and strength of its people. Their fresh, exciting vision for the future is rooted in years of public service and community organizing, which is why voters are so enthusiastic about their campaigns. With anti-LGBTQ hate continuing to sweep across the state, strengthening LGBTQ representation in local government could not be more important. Nick and Mario are exceptional leaders and I am confident that under their leadership, all Houstonians will thrive,” said Mayor Annise Parker, President & CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund.
“Houston has had an LGBTQ member on City Council since Annise Parker’s historic victory. Now, Houston is at risk of being the largest city in the country without LGBTQ representation. This is unacceptable. I am excited to work with LGBTQ Victory Fund to ensure our community’s voice continues to be heard at City Council and throughout Houston,” said Hellyar.
“LGBTQ leaders like former Mayor Annise Parker have transformed Houston for the better, and I will work hard every day to carry on that tradition. We all belong to many communities – I am a Houstonian, a cis gay man, a Latino, a nonprofit leader, and so much more. LGBTQ Victory Fund sees and helps elevate the intersectionality of all these communities. I am deeply honored to have earned their endorsement,” said Castillo.
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LGBTQ Victory Fund
LGBTQ Victory Fund works to achieve and sustain equality by increasing the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials at all levels of government while ensuring they reflect the diversity of those they serve. Since 1991, Victory Fund has helped thousands of openly LGBTQ candidates win local, state and federal elections.
Throughout her childhood, Rep. Herod’s parents, an Army veteran and a police officer, emphasized the importance of serving one’s community, and that helping others is always the right thing to do. The noble teachings of her parents inspired her to encourage many students of color, LGBTQ+ students, and first-generation students at her college, the University of Colorado-Boulder, to run for student government. While in college, she became the Student Body President, managing a $36 million budget. After serving the students at her college, Leslie made an impact on the 2012 presidential election as President Obama’s Deputy Political Director for Colorado, and later gained government experience as the Governor’s Senior Policy Advisor. Finally, Rep. Herod ran for state House to help the people in her district, becoming the first out LGBTQ+ Black person elected to the Colorado legislature.
An experienced lawmaker and social justice reform advocate Rep. Herod has served with the mission of improving the lives of all Coloradoans and passed over 150 pieces of legislation in her tenure. Working with community activists and police departments, Leslie championed a successful alternative policing program that deploys trained mental health workers and paramedics to respond to 911 calls involving mental health crises and substance misuse. As the Chair of the Appropriations Committee and Joint Budget Committee, she has delivered a $36B balanced budget for Colorado. Now Rep. Herod is ready to bring that same approach of putting results over politics to the Denver Mayor’s office.
A trailblazer Having broken barriers by becoming the first out LGBTQ+ Black person elected to the Colorado legislature, Leslie hopes to continue breaking barriers in the Centennial State. If elected Mayor of Denver, Leslie will be the first woman ever elected as Mayor of Denver. The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund is proud to endorse Rep. Leslie Herod at the Spotlight level as she faces a crowded field in this race.
We live in a modern time where telemedicine can become one of the most significant solutions for the massive inequalities that LGBTQ+ communities have historically faced in healthcare.
When I think back on my ob/gyn residency at Stanford University, I was trained to order a pregnancy test for every patient who could become pregnant who was undergoing surgery – patients were treated the same regardless of or without a discussion about sexual orientation, gender identity, or sexual behavior. This is just one example of the gaps in our system.
I also witnessed an infertility doctor limiting his practice to married heterosexual couples, and even labor and delivery nurses caring for patients in same-sex relationships expressing discomfort with their assignments.
I’ve often wondered why the FDA classifies testosterone as a controlled substance. According to the CDC, a drug or other substance is tightly controlled by the government because it may be abused or cause addiction. Labeling testosterone as a controlled substance makes gender-affirming hormonal therapy for transgender men and non-binary individuals restrictive.
Even further, think about the language around abortion, like the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court in June 2022. “Erosion of women’srights” implies a cis womanbias, which we all read in the media and the language used by well-intentioned pro-choice groups.
Tactics from anti-abortion groups are now being repurposed, and well-meaning yet exclusionary language choices are being weaponized against clinics, providers, and parents of children who want gender-affirming care. Movements in Florida and Texas exist to make gender transition-related medical care for minors a felony.
What is the root of these issues? It’s clear: standards of care in clinical medicine have been based on the white male model and when sex assigned at birth mattered, reinforcing a binary and heterosexist model. Those in LGBTQ+ communities have been stigmatized as a homogenous group of sexual and gender minorities and subjects of relatively little health research. The health status of LGBTQ+ populations is mainly limited to mental health, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) makes it unlawful to discriminate against someone on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), or religion. However, religious entities may be exempt. Religious organizations still have the freedom to provide insurance policies and health care services consistent with their convictions. According to a publication in JAMA Network, the Catholic hospital market share was 18.4% in 2018.
However, there’s momentum in changing these inequalities for LGBTQ+ patients. In 2011, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released the report The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding. The National LGBT Health Education Center (a program of the Fenway Institute) developed a “How To” for: Providing Inclusive Services and Care for LGBT People: A Guide for Health Care Staff.
We, in medicine, have continuous training in implicit bias. Patients want clinicians who can relate to them. This is especially true for historically disenfranchised and marginalized populations. Finding someone you can identify with feels validating, and it may increase your confidence about going to the doctor and your ability to actually adhere to medical advice.
We need more underrepresented minority physicians and more female physicians in the U.S. healthcare system. What about LGBTQ+ physicians? Comprehensive data does not exist. We must develop a queer physician workforce that values diversity, including LGBTQ+ identity, if we want to start seeing these changes.
In the meantime, that IVF doctor with whom I trained now provides inclusive care, demonstrating hope for a new era where patients of all gender identities and sexualities are treated with dignity.
The medical community is behind and needs to catch up with appropriate equal rights for the LGBTQ+ communities. Telemedicine is one area where healthcare can move more quickly to end these disparities in care.
The technology in telemedicine gives LGBTQ+ patients access to gender-competent, non-discriminatory care, which may be harder to find in rural areas and healthcare deserts. Inclusive online forms and language built into the patient experience can better serve all patients.
Telemedicine is our moment. It is the opportunity to equalize health care and finally reduce these archaic stigmas and biases.
Dr. Mary Jacobson, is an OB GYN who studied at Stanford and has dedicated her career to women’s health. She serves as the Chief Medical Advisor at Alpha Medical, a dedicated tool answering the fact that women face the most significant barriers to accessible and affordable healthcare. Alpha was formed to provide access to care for some of the country’s most common, underserved, and undertreated medical needs.
Michigan right-wingers are working together to challenge LGBTQ+-inclusive education in public schools.
An organization called the Great Schools Initiative (GSI) is offering parents an opt-out form to prevent all discussions about gender identity and sexual orientation in schools.
Last week, the group began an initiative called “Operation Opt-Out,” which asks parents to submit an opt-out form authored by GSI to be added to their children’s school files, Michigan Advance reports.
Nearly three pages of proscriptions against facts about reproductive health, family planning, contraception, LGBTQ+ issues, and social justice are contained in the document — which happens to contain numerous spelling errors.
The form mandates that schools shall not include a student in “any and all instruction on gender ideology, the physiological (including endocrinological), psychological and functions of reproductive health as it relates to human sexuality. This opt out includes, but is not limited to: gender identity, gender expression, gender assignment, sexual identities, sexual expression, sexual attraction, sexual orientarion, gender fluidity, transitioning, and expicit sexual activity or behavior.”
Currently, under existing state law, all Michigan public schools offer parents the ability to have their children skip some or all sexual education classes, according to Michigan Advance.
GSI goes further and excludes students from what they refer to as “rogue sex ed.”
Forbidden is a wide range of activities, such as school-affiliated student clubs that support LGBTQ+ students, displaying Pride flags, and educators asking students for their pronouns, among other restrictions.
Including LGBTQ+ students in groups and efforts provides them with social activities and support. Nevertheless, the right-wing activists behind the form claim that anything that promotes LGBTQ+ students should be considered sexual, and educators who affirm LGBTQ+ matters are falsely smeared as “groomers.”
Monica Yatooma, who unsuccessfully ran for Oakland County commissioner; Matthew Nelson, an attorney based in Grand Rapids; and Nathan Pawl, an entrepreneur based in Walled Lake, founded GSI in September. Each incorporator provided the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulation with the address of a Chicago law firm, the Thomas More Society, which promotes far-right conservative causes in the country, according to Michigan Advance.
According to Pawl, who spoke at a recent GSI meeting that was later posted on YouTube, if hundreds of parents handed in the forms, “this is going to change everything because it’ll be too much for them to handle.”
Pawl explained that his involvement in GSI was born out of outrage that his son’s school was required to wear masks during the ongoing global pandemic.
Last February, the Thomas More Society threatened to sue Walled Lake Schools and Oakland County if school officials did not reverse mask mandates.
“What every parent and member of the school community should know is that ‘don’t say gay’ policies and other so-called ‘parental rights’ efforts will harm people and put children’s health and safety at risk,” local resident and parent Brittnee Senecal told Michigan Advance. Senecal also is part of the group Michigan Parent Alliance for Safe Schools (MIPASS), which supports public schools in the state. “The efforts of these hate groups will also worsen a range of real-world challenges that affect young people and their families, including teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and other healthcare-related realities.”
