G&STC’s Director Jesse Kahn talks with Gabrielle Kassel at Healthline about How to Identify and Help End 7 LGBTQIA+ Health Disparities
CHECK OUT G&STC’S DIRECTOR JESSE KAHN TALKING WITH GABRIELLE KASSEL AT HEALTHLINE ABOUT COMMON LGBTQIA+ HEALTH DISPARITIES AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP END THEM.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP AS AN ALLY
Ask yourself what you can do to unlearn the narrative that someone is cisgender and straight unless “proven” otherwise.
“Straightness and cis-ness are still assumed until an LGBTQ+ person announces otherwise,” says Jesse Kahn, LCSW, CST, director and sex therapist at The Gender & Sexuality Therapy Center in New York City. “For some people that means having to hide or shield parts of themselves in all, a variety of, or in certain situations.”
This can be painful, difficult, or fragmenting.
As an ally, you can do things like use gender-neutral language and pronouns until a person shares their gender and dating preferences with you.
You can also:
Implement clear policies against discrimination in your places of work and play.
Financially support LGBTQIA+ support groups.
Include LGBTQIA+ topics in your media consumption.
MORE FROM G&STC DIRECTOR JESSE KAHN ON THIS TOPIC:
LGBTQ+ people experience health disparities in a variety of ways from individual interactions as well as institutionalized practices ranging from overt discriminiation to microaggressions.
What kind of mental health concerns can living "in the closet" lead to? Why might someone feel anxious or depressed if they can't live as their whole selves?
Not coming out or feeling closeted can look different for everyone and can be for different reasons. For some people that means having to hide or shield parts of themselves in all, a variety or in certain situations. The extent to which this feels painful, difficult or fragmenting is different for everyone. I would imagine part of that is impacted by the degrees to which you’re not out, if you have spaces where you do feel seen and your personal needs related to being seen. For some people this can be very painful, shame inducing and scary and or other’s it’s mild - and it’s important to not generalize what being out means and looks like and does for everyone.
Because straightness and cis-ness are still assumed until we announce otherwise, we can feel, individually and communally, a sense of urgency around coming out. But ultimately, it’s important to ask ourselves: does coming out give us more space to live and thrive? Are we coming out because we feel pressured to due to living in a cis-heteronormative and cis-heterosupremacist culture? Can both of these be true?
When you already feel that your gender is questioned and deemed invalid, when someone misgenders you it affirms that belief. Additionally, it can be particularly harmful when a person in positional power, such as your doctor, misgenders you.
While ideally you’re not misgendered and ideally there are institutional practices set up to learn your correct name and pronouns in order to refer to you correctly, that doesn’t always happen. If you’re in a situation where someone misgenders you, start by assuming it’s an accident and correct them. You can say something as simple as, “By the way, my pronouns are they/them (for example), and my name is Jesse.” You don’t need to say anything else. If they continue to misgender you, it’s up to you at this point if you’d like to do more work to ensure they gender you correctly or if you’d like to find a new provider. Geography can be a factor to consider, but luckily due to the increase in providers being willing and set up to do telehealth, hopefully that will increase access to queer and trans competent providers.