The wintertime blues can be a very real and very difficult experience for many, draining our energy and cutting us off from sources of support just when we need them the most. But there ways to cope and find brightness and joy even in the colder months. Kate Bishop, Education Coordinator for The Center for LGBTQ Health Equity, and Randall Leonard LCSW-C, a staff therapist with the Center, recently discussed how to beat the wintertime blues: Kate Bishop: Randall, I know you’ve seen a number of clients recently who’ve been struggling with mood and motivation. What is it about this […]
LGBTQ-Affirming Healthcare Requires More Than a One-Hour Training
Gay men in Baltimore needed STI treatment in 1978, but continually found ineptitude and humiliation from providers who had no knowledge about their patients’ risks or their realities. Chase Brexton Health Care started out in a basement apartment near North Avenue to address that critical need. Though LGBTQ legal rights and cultural legitimacy are a world away from the stigma of the past, too many of us are still facing clueless or cruel medical experiences in 2021. A recent study published in the Journal of Homosexuality, echoing the dismal findings of those from a decade or two ago, found […]
Celebrating ElderPride – Our Roots Keep Us Strong
The LGBTQ movement grew, as all do, because it was necessary. Our Elders and 20th century ancestors were degraded, pathologized, systematically brainwashed to deny their own truth. Those who couldn’t or wouldn’t be “discreet” were outcast, murdered, and institutionalized. The only safe option for so many was hiding, and we now know from a pile of research that living a shadow life of deception and shame slowly kills you. Pride dawned from the dignity of our people. Pride was the flower of our convictions—the way I love is valid, my gender is worthy, the desires I have are honorable—and our […]
Reflecting on the Election, Preparing for Trans Day of Remembrance
We have made it through a high-stakes, and deeply polarized election season. Even folks who don’t engage in electoral politics much have felt the building tension among our communities. Our President and Vice President elect have been projected and announced, and even though there may be ongoing vote counting process and legal wrangling, change appears to be just around the corner. There were many big wins for representation, most noticeably, a glass ceiling has shattered with the selection, campaign, and victory of Vice President elect, Senator Kamala Harris. Election season also brought exciting wins for LGBTQ candidates nationwide. Delaware elected Sarah McBride as state […]
With Darkness Growing All Around, Resources for Coping with LGBT Stress
“Spooky Season” has arrived and the beautiful autumn finds us all…STRESSED. Truly, this has been one of the most stressful periods in many of our living memories. The pandemic has been a game-changer, even for those who have not suffered COVID-19 illness or the loss of a loved one. Tragically, many of us have lost someone, often under heartbreaking circumstances where we didn’t get the chance to say goodbye. Every one of us who survives 2020 will have scars to show for the remainder of our lives. The adjustments our culture has made are remarkable. But they’re also causing us […]
Healing Resources for Black Queer and Trans Communities
In this time of great change, uncertainty, and hope, we at the LGBT Health Resource Center wanted to offer a list of resources to support black members of our communities who may be in need of healing, support, therapy, and self-care. Our Center is here for you as well – visit Resourcecenter.lgbt to learn more. Asterisked items are explicitly LGBTQ / Same Gender Loving-focused services. Healing Yoga with Jessamyn Stanley (Jessamynstanley.com) – Jessamyn Stanley is a black queer fat femme yoga teacher and writer who works to make the practice accessible to all bodies and people of all means. […]
All About Our Pronouns at Chase Brexton Health Care
It’s Pronoun-palooza at Chase Brexton Health Care! Our centers are honored to serve nearly 4,000 gender-diverse children, adolescents, adults, and elders. In creating a welcoming, affirming care environment, using the appropriate name and pronoun for every patient is non-negotiable. In that spirit, our LGBT Health Resource Center is leading an internal campaign about the importance of correct pronouns in patient care. Using the patient’s chosen name and appropriate pronoun isn’t just good manners – it’s good health care. Demonstrating respect by seeing someone as the whole person they are is the basis of a therapeutic relationship. The cost of being […]
Back-To-School Guide for LGBTQ Students
Back-to-school can be an anxious time for many LGBTQ youth, who may expect to face bullying, humiliation, and discrimination at school. Though the atmosphere for LGBTQ students has improved greatly in the past decade, school can still be a rough place to spend your day. In the 2017 National School Climate Survey, national LGBTQ student advocacy group GLSEN found that 90% of Maryland students heard homophobic, biphobic or transphobic slurs at school. More than half of queer and gender diverse high school students had been verbally harassed, a quarter were physically harassed, and 10% had been physically assaulted. When our […]
On National Health Center Week, Honoring the Role of Community Health Centers in LGBT Care
Though LGBTQ folks have made enormous leaps in legal protections and decreasing cultural stigma, that progress is deeply uneven across identity and geography. Many people in our communities still struggle to find a health care provider who shows us respect and understands our needs, and community health centers serve a special role in meeting those needs. And we do have specific needs – for example, lesbian and same-gender-loving women are at higher risk for breast cancer, but get routine screenings far less frequently. Transgender care is a whole field of specialty unto itself, and providers are almost never equipped with […]