GLMA Summary

Conference was great. There is nothing better than getting together with the GLMA folk - all ages, sexual orientations and gender identities... all intellectual, educated, and motivated to help make it safe to practice as an out doc and safer to be an out patient. Some people are hard core activists by choice, and some by necessity. Take Janice who wasn't allowed to visit her same-sex partner as she was dying in a major academic hospital because they were both women. Her story (click here) was heartbreaking and it amazes me that less than a year later she can talk about what happened to hundreds of health professionals.

The transgender and genderqueer presence this year was spectacular, I feel. The programming also was excellent, as I said in my last post. Especially for trans health care this year. I went to several sessions on transgender health care and inclusion as well as adolescent transgender issues and gyn care. I also went to many of the plenaries which were very engaging. I networked and met clinic directors from places large and small, NY, San Fran and Boston LGBT-focused clinics and rural practices. One rural family doc told his story about being fired for being "too gay" after working in the same clinic for 33 years. He was told that his being out was slowing the growth of the practice. It still happens people! Read an article about it here.

The workshop went really well. I started out asking people to establishing goals for the session. Everyone is at a different place. Some may be the only out person they know at their whole institution and they need to find a way to start a group without jeopardizing their safety. Some people may be senior faculty at a major academic institution and need to know if gender and sexuality issues are part of credentialing requirements. Many want to know how to convince their colleagues/Dean that LGBT health concerns are important enough to take up lecture time. Some people may have awesome LGBT curriculum at their schools (UofM in the house!) but want to know how to conduct a survey to see if there are new needs or how the programming is received. I could go on....

But I'll spare you all.

Point being: There is a HUGE spectrum of need in this arena. I'm so glad to be of service for all these folks. I ran out of business cards very early in the conference. But the good news is, like I said, this is still a hot issue and there are a lot of folks like me out there who know how to help other people problem solve on this very topic.

The conference ended with the Gala Banquet which we had on a vessel that traveled around the bay with a spectacular view of the nighttime skyline. I MC'ed the event with a longtime MC who, of course, sang a couple show tunes. When you get a queen, a spotlight, a piano, a microphone and a captive audience, the only outcome is a showtune (or two). Of course some of the crowd was not ga-ga for Sondheim, but everyone was good natured and after raising $90,000 for the GLMA and the Lesbian Health Fund over the weekend it all ended with a fun dance floor party.

It's sad that I only see some of these folks once a year but it's awesome that I even get to do that! It's also sad knowing that some of the students may never come back, maybe because they are on rotation and won't be able to make it, or maybe because the cost of membership and conference is too much, or maybe because the excitement will wear off and they'll forget what a great conference this was and what a great time they had. As a board member I think my new goal is to figure out what GLMA can do to help slow the attrition rate.

Next post: News on the Cat, the Car and the fabulousness of the Sci-Fi Museum. Maybe.