The Arc Mercer, Capitol County’s premier provider of programs and services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), has launched a groundbreaking LGBTQ community organization for people with special needs. The group, the Special Needs Alliance for Pride (SNAP), is not just the first organization of its kind in the state of New Jersey – but the first in the entire country!
This week is Gender Odyssey, the country’s largest transgender conference, and it’s right here in Seattle. Founder Aidan Key started the conference in 2001. “To help me personally find and connect with people who are going through gender transition because I was just starting my transition from female to male,” Key explained. It has since grown from 300 attendees to about 1,700. And one of the most important additions has been including programming for teens, children, and their families.
Did you know that gay and bisexual men get less routine health care than other men do? That lesbian and bisexual women are less likely to have a usual place to go for medical care? According to the US Transgender Survey, almost a quarter of transgender people avoid going to the doctor for needed medical care out of the fear of being mistreated.
Three medical students at the University of Pennsylvania are getting ready launch their LGBTQ-focused health care app, SpectrumScores, by the end of August. The app will connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer patients with doctors who have been recognized as LGBTQ-friendly by advocacy organizations, academic medical centers and, eventually, the app users themselves.
In Ottawa, one in five gay patients refuse to disclose their sexual orientation to their health care provider for fear of facing stigma, according to The Ottawa Hospital. This is one of the reasons why The Ottawa Hospital Foundation wants to create a comprehensive health care program that will help improve access to appropriate care for gay men.
Statistics show that women who identify as “lesbian” become pregnant at a much higher rate than “straight” women and “homosexual” men are impregnating women at a significantly greater percentage than heterosexual men. The pregnancy rates are verified by studies in several nations, all showing that homosexual pregnancy rates are two to seven times higher than heterosexual pregnancy rates. And pro-homosexual organizations acknowledge that “unintended pregnancy is huge in the LGBT youth world.”
A lack of social and community groups in MetroWest often leaves LGBT senior citizens having to trek to Worcester, Cambridge or even Providence, Rhode Island, to socialize with members of their community. Or worse, they become isolated and feel unconnected to their peers. “Once you can no longer drive they become more isolated,” said Linda Marshall, director of the Holliston Council on Aging. “It’s really hard for them to get out of the MetroWest area.”
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