March 2001 • Volume 7 • Number 3
A stepwise approach to a GLBT-friendly office
Step one: Exorcise any of your own demons. "Get your head screwed around so you're not still holding onto all those homophobic attitudes you learned from your family or your friends growing up," says George Gay, M.D., of Cambridge, Wis.
Judith Chamberlain, M.D.:
"Don't out your patients! Ask them, 'What's OK to have in your record, and what's not?'"The same goes for your office staff -- talk with them and work through their questions about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues.
Step two: Know the symbols. "If a patient comes into your office wearing a rainbow or a pink triangle or a lambda, say something about it. If you don't say anything, they'll think you don't know what it means," Gay says.
Step three: Let your office environment showcase your intent. "I have posters and reading materials in my waiting room that indicate it's OK to talk about these issues," says Gay.
Step four: "Don't out your patients!" warns Judith Chamberlain, M.D., of Brunswick, Maine. "Ask them, 'What's OK to have in your record, and what's not?'"
Guarding your GLBT patients' privacy may take a little creativity. For example, Chamberlain uses a small lambda symbol to identify the medical charts of her lesbian patients. And Gay uses a tiny "G" or "L" as an identifier.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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