Sexual orientation and medicine

This is the main article for the Category:Sexual orientation and medicine and Category:LGBT physicians.

This article discusses issues related to sexual orientation and medicine including medical associations and societies, medical schools, health, health policy, access to health care and health disparities.

It also includes a timeline of events related to sexual orientation and medicine.

LGBT-specific medical associations

Australia

• Australian Lesbian Medical Association

United Kingdom

• CHAPS (health organisation)
• Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists
• LGBTI Health Summit
• LGBT Centre for Health and Wellbeing

United States

• Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights
• Gay and Lesbian Medical Association - (website)
• LGBT Health Action Committee (part of AMSA)
• LGBTI Health Summit
• Lesbian Health and Research Center
• National Coalition for LGBT Health
• Pritzker School of Medicine LGBT People In Medicine
• Rainbow Health Initiative (Minnesota) - (website)
• Touro University Gay-Straight Alliance
• U of Michigan Medical School Bisexuals, Gays, Lesbians, and Allies in Medicine

Medical associations with policy related to sexual orientation

Australia

• Australian Medical Association[1]

China

• Chinese Society of Psychiatry

United States

• American Academy of Pediatrics [2]
• American Medical Association[3]
• American Medical Student Association [4]
• American Psychological Association (for public)[5] (for educators)[6]
• Catholic Medical Association
• Christian Medical and Dental Association [7]

Timeline of events related to sexual orientation and medicine

See also: Timeline of AIDS and Timeline of LGBT history

• 1886
  • Dr. Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, a German psychiatrist, publishes a study of sexual perversity.
• 1974
  • The American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
• 1977
  • The Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights is founded in San Francisco as a support group for gay and lesbian medical students, residents, and other health care providers. The group claims to be the first LGBT medical society in the US.
• 1981
  • The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association is founded 1981 as the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights.
  • The first cases of Gay related immunodeficiency, now known as AIDS, were first reported June 5, 1981, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded a cluster of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in five homosexual men in Los Angeles.
• 1987
  • The diagnosis of Ego-dystonic sexual orientation is dropped from the DSM.
• 1992
  • The World health organization replaces its categorization of homosexuality as a mental illness with the diagnosis of ego-dystonic homosexuality.
• 1993
  • Dr. Dean Hamer publishes a paper suggesting a genetic component to sexual orientation.
• 1995
  • Saquinavir, the first protease inhibitor is approved for public use by the FDA. HAART radically changes the prognosis of HIV/AIDS.
• 1996
  • The US Department of Defense includes homosexuality in a list of "mental disorders," in a document known as "directive 1332.38: physical disability evaluation."
• 2002
  • The United States Department of Health and Human Services publishes Healthy People 2010, with the goals of increasing the quality and years of healthy life and eliminating health disparities in America. It identifies sexual orientation as one of 6 demographic factors contributing to health disparities.

America’s gay and lesbian population comprises a diverse community with disparate health concerns. Major health issues for gay men are HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, depression, and suicide. Gay male adolescents are two to three times more likely than their peers to attempt suicide. Some evidence suggests lesbians have higher rates of smoking, overweight, alcohol abuse, and stress than heterosexual women. The issues surrounding personal, family, and social acceptance of sexual orientation can place a significant burden on mental health and personal safety.

— Healthy People 2010

• 2004
  • New York Medical College revokes the charter of the its LGBT medical student group after the applies to change its name from Student Help Organization to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender People in Medicine. School officials claimed “the organization and its leader would advocate and promote activities inconsistent with the values of NYMC.” In an interview with the Westchester Journal News, then AMA president Dr. John Nelson says that as a private institution the college has the right to set and enforce its own policies.

If you own a business or if you have a private entity, and there are rules for membership there, you have to follow the rules or you can't be a member. For example, if you come to Brigham Young University, where my children happen to go to school, there are certain things you do not do, among which is, you do not drink Coca-Cola on campus because that's against the rules. ...

— Dr. John Nelson, president AMA

• • The AMA officially did not support the ban, and the organization released a statement claiming the president's views were not representative of the organizations policy.

• 2005
  • American Medical Association president Edward Hill, MD becomes the first AMA president to address the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association in a speech entitled "Understanding, Advocacy, Leadership: The AMA Perspective on LGBT Health."

I know that GLMA members and LGBT physicians have been treated unfairly by the AMA in the past. There is simply no excuse for discriminatory actions or exclusions based on sexual orientation or gender identity -- none. First, GLMA has opened [the AMA's] eyes to the diverse needs of LGBT patients, and second -- and just as important -- GLMA has told patients that they have the right to expect a health care system filled with openness, fairness and equality."

— Dr. Edward Hill, MD, president American Medical Association

• 2006
  • Touro University, a medical school in California, revokes the charter of its LGBT student organization. After an outcry of protest from various groups, the school restores the group and school officials apologize.
• 2007
  • The American Medical Student Association membership votes to create an action committee on LGBT health issues and elects Brian Hurley to the office of national vice-president, the first LGBT person to hold the office.
  • The US Food and Drug Administration re-affirms its policy prohibiting men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating blood despite recommendations from the American Red Cross, and the American Association of Blood Banks.
  • James Holsinger is nominated by President George W. Bush to be attorney general. Because of Dr. Holsinger's support of the ex-gay movement, his nomination draw sharp criticism from groups like the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association and the Human Rights Campaign.

See also

• Homosexuality and science
• Homosexuality and psychology
• Sexual orientation and science