LGBTQ people in general face particular challenges accessing quality healthcare. Trans people often have difficulty finding medical professionals with necessary training and experience. Gay people sometimes face similar obstacles.

Some obstacles are systemic — put in place by bureaucracy that doesn’t take LGBTQ needs into consideration. Other obstacles are more personal. Your own hesitance to talk with your doctor about STIs isn’t unusual, for example.

Too many of us have run into situations where our healthcare providers either aren’t trained to understand our needs or who react with personal negative judgment when we are open about about our sexuality.

This isn’t supposed to happen, but it does. I have often wished for some sort of a voluntary network of physicians and other professionals who use a logo to identify themselves as LGBTQ trained and friendly. I think that would make the search for healthcare so much easier and less stressful.

As a gay man, for example, there are certain things I need with respect to inoculations and examinations that are different from what a straight man might need. But I live way out in a rural area where people are very conservative, and coming out as gay is something I do very carefully with strangers. You just never know. Having to come out to a doctor or a nurse isn’t something I want to stress about.

I would love to know in advance that the clinic or practice I’m in accepts and affirms me. I know tons of trans people who would be thrilled with something like that too.

Sorry, I know this isn’t really the topic of your article, but you got me going a little bit.