DOCTORS ' LOUNGE
DOCTORS ' LOUNGE
SPEAK YOUR MIND If you would like to respond to an article in this issue , please submit an article or letter to the editor . Contributions may be sent to editor @ glms . org . The GLMS Editorial Board reserves the right to choose what will be published . Please note that the views expressed in Doctors ’ Lounge or any other article in this publication are not those of the Greater Louisville Medical Society or Louisville Medicine .
GENE BULLIES BEGONE AUTHOR Mary Barry , MD
Some people are born gay . They figure it out eventually , and in this country , inevitably suffer for it . The curse of being different is one thrown back at most , in glaring or subtle ways , for life . The blessing of knowing fully who you are , and loving accordingly , is what I hope always compensates for the trials of being Other . Yet this century
has been so much better for gay people than the last , thanks to the Stonewall resisters who kicked off the Gay Power movement in 1969 , followed a year later by the first June marches for solidarity and pride . The glory of being out and proud , of never being hidden again , took over for the next decade as gay people found and embraced community , self-help and a newly cool acceptance of identity . Then in 1980-81 , AIDS struck in the big cities , and spread . ACT UP and the Gay Men ’ s Health Crisis of NYC , the group who in 1982 began organized care and support for people with AIDS and their caregivers , took up the battle . They grew to help everyone around affected by AIDS regardless of sexual orientation , and influenced national policy , getting grants from the 1990 Ryan White CARE Act they and other groups helped to pass . God ’ s Love We Deliver has since 1985 provided meals to people with AIDS and now with many other illnesses , people who are too sick to shop or cook . The worldwide Pride movement took off with the 1970 Gay Power parade and now celebrates and supports LGBTQ togetherness everywhere .
Those of my generation who survived the scourge of AIDS had a much more difficult time growing up than the youth of today , who have far more mentors and far more openness to help them along . People born before 1946 self-identify as gay at only 1.3 %, compared to Generation Z , born 1997-2002 , who come in at 15.9 %. 1 Somewhere around 6 % of Americans now identify as gay in telephone polls , with 87 % saying they ’ re straight and the rest refusing to answer the question , from a February 2020 Gallup poll of 15,000 people aged 18 and up . 1 Surveys conducted online - with online anonymity - reach overall estimates of 8-9 % of us , with many also identifying as bisexual . Over a million same-sex couple households were counted as of November 2019 , per the US Census Bureau . 2 Sexual orientation is a fluid sort of thing for some , and not in question for others .
Youth who identify as transgender numbered at least 150,000 in the US as of 2017 . 3 But pediatric researchers have shown that these youth have heartbreakingly high rates of attempted suicide . Up to half of young female-to-male youth have tried to kill themselves , and 41 % of youth still undecided which orientation they are , have attempted suicide . 4
Despite this intense vulnerability , transgender youth are under attack from politicians nationwide , including here , in Kentucky . Senate Bill 83 seeks to allow “ conscience based ” refusals of all medical care to anyone the caregiver - from desk clerk to anesthesia doc - objects to . Black ? Too bad . Gay ? Go away . Jewish ? You gotta be kidding me . Asian ? Get outta here ! This bill passed out of the state Senate Judiciary Committee with only one Nay vote , from local Sen . Karen Berg , MD . As of this writing , it was still awaiting a floor vote in the Senate - meaning it ’ s unlikely to make it to the House this session . Still , the vast bigotry of this bill boggles the mind , particularly as it hides behind “ conscience ,” which I translate as , “ Our
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