Pride in Practice: What We Signed Up For

By Phoebe McGraw (she/her), OMS II, Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine

In the month of June, we celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and stand in solidarity with our personhood, stories, authenticity and all those who came before us.

As osteopathic physicians, we base our learning and practices on the body’s dynamic ability to heal, inherently placing trust in the body’s lived experiences. We seek out holistic health rather than just treating disease. We learn to listen and advocate for our patients. With this at top of mind, being a fearless advocate of LGBTQ+ patients should be our goal.

Phoebe (pictured left) and Medical Student Pride Alliance students at Pride event.

My Story

I come from a conservative religious background where queerness was taught, albeit mostly alluded to, as wrong—where cisgender heterosexuality was the only valid human experience. Others were labeled as sinful. Discovering my queerness and coming out was complicated, to say the least. Deconstructing a lifetime of shame and problematic theology changed how I understood the world. It was radical and painful and beautiful to break into a new way of seeing; where spirituality transcends the limits I previously knew and expands the bounds of love, healing and community. This is an example of how we bring our identity, whether that be race, religion or culture, into our profession and can use it to enrich our practices.

Beliefs and morals aside, the view of LGBTQ+ people I was taught has incredibly harmful implications on the health of all people, religious or not, given we live in a society with roots steeped in purity and religiosity. Self-examination is one of the most difficult yet vitally important things we need to do as people living in society, especially those who serve as doctors and healers. We need to constantly be willing to see the world differently than yesterday. Are we committed to providing the best care for every one of our patients? If the answer is yes, then that most definitely includes fighting for LGBTQ+ rights and healthcare.

For me, being a medical student and future physician means I have a voice to advocate for my community. I am responsible for giving that voice to others, especially those on the margins who historically lack representation in healthcare. This is particularly vital in rural healthcare. Though I am living my dream of being a medical student, I have gone from living in Seattle to rural Yakima, Washington, where everyone in Walmart stares at me and my wife holding hands and my neighbors are confused at how two women could be living together, married and somehow married to each other. Wild.

Realities of Rural Care

Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine (PNWU-COM) is located in rural Eastern Washington state. Last month, the Yakima City Council struck down the recognition and declaration of Pride Month for the first time since 2016. The Yakima Herald quotes a councilmember’s claim that the need for “Pride Month suggests that individuals with different sexual preferences are unwelcome or discriminated against.” Of the many disheartening things wrong and problematic about this, what stuck out to me most is the fragility of LGBTQ+ rights and representation in rural spaces. Don’t get me wrong, the community was rightly upset, and the Yakima Pride Parade and Festival had its largest turnout in the town’s history, and it was incredibly empowering to see the community rally together in support of each other. However, the reality of living in a rural place where politics are heavily influenced by, let’s be honest, traditional religious views, is demoralizing.

As osteopathic physicians, it is vital we recognize that LGBTQ+ rights are especially important to protect in rural spaces. In rural areas, LGBTQ+ identities are commonly less visible and socially accepted. Just as we inform ourselves with local antibiograms, we need to be aware of the sociopolitical climate of the area we serve, as this will likely have a profound impact on our patients.

A Word on “Support”

In this day and age, you don’t get to choose to be supporters of LGBTQ+ rights and against discrimination without doing something about it. You either have pride flags displayed, pronoun inclusive structures, gender/sexuality trained clinic staff or you choose to say nothing and be complicit in old structures that oppress folks deviating from the dominant heteronormative culture. If we stand in solidarity and support of LGBTQ+ individuals, that means we say something, do something and know something.

As medical students, we work tirelessly to equip ourselves with the knowledge to best care for our patients. So, this month especially we need to ask ourselves how we are learning to treat our LGBTQ+ patients. Unsure what that even looks like? Are you still unclear on what gender affirming care even is? Do you have no experience with trans patients? Look it up, research it, talk to someone about it. This is what we signed up for and we should be excited by the fact that we are creating the field of medicine that we want to work in. The biggest predictor of someone challenging their biases and assumptions is positive exposure to people and groups you are unfamiliar with. We need actual lived experiences with the unfamiliar and a break from the comfortable.

And if our medical schools lack sufficient curriculum to teach us these things, what are we going to do about it? At PNWU-COM, I had the incredible experience of attending a Grand Rounds where a trans physician spoke on trans care, gender dysphoria and the medical field’s shockingly recent history of formal research on this. As I sat in the lecture hall listening, I thought to myself, this is the kind of radical medicine I went into the osteopathic field to learn about and change the world with. That Grand Rounds was an optional lunch hour talk and I was shocked that it was not an entire system course or at least a large part of one. As the next generation of osteopathic physicians, we need to inspire each other to advocate for inclusivity by pushing for systemic change. Be the students who advocate for this or support your peers who are. I have hope in the progress of PNWU, but I also hold both the hope and the changes that are still desperately needed.

This month our LGBTQ+ community steps fully into the rainbow of authenticity and we ask our allies to do the same. We celebrate all LGBTQ+ student doctors for the vital perspective they bring to our generation of rising healthcare leaders. Be true to you and honor others.