DEI in The Land: Pride Month!
In honor of Pride month this June, we are highlighting the LGBTQ+ community in the Greater Cleveland area. Cleveland’s LGBTQ+ community rose to prominence in the 1970s following the Stonewall riots of 1969 occurring in New York City, often touted as the initiation of the gay rights movement. The first newspaper published by and for gay Ohioans was produced in Cleveland during this decade and titled High GEAR, after the GEAR (Gay Education and Awareness Resources) Foundation. This group additionally established the Lesbian/Gay Community Service Center of Greater Cleveland in 1975, which lives on as the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland and serves as the heart of the LGBTQ+ community in Cleveland to this day. This organization sponsors and hosts events such as Pride in the CLE, Cleveland’s annual Pride parade, as well as health fairs aimed at the LGBTQ+ population.
https://lgbtcleveland.org/pride/
Despite recent advancements such as the national legalization of same sex marriage in 2015, the LGBTQ+ community remains disproportionately affected by a variety of health conditions, in part as a result of longstanding stigmatization by the healthcare community. These include but are not limited to increased rates of alcohol and drug use, increased frequency of mental health disorders, and medical complications secondary to a delay in seeking care. The DEI committee is working to fight this stigmatization and increase access to nonjudgmental healthcare in order to better serve our local LGBTQ+ population here in Cleveland.
POST BY: DR. EMILY CRAFT, PGY2
FACULTY EDITING BY: DR. LAUREN MCCAFFERTY