An understanding of sex, gender and sexual orientation is vital for working in the field of medicine, according to Tara Cunningham, associate dean of admissions recruitment at University of Arizona College of Medicine — Phoenix.
The school had its last Brown Bag Series presentation of the year, titled “Creating a Safe Space for the LGBTQ Community.” Cunningham, also co-director of diversity and inclusion, was the speaker at the event.
“Sex is between your legs; gender is between your ears; and what’s in your heart is sexual orientation,” Cunningham said.
She presented the terminology that can be used to describe and identify individuals, and spoke about the importance of recognizing gender identity as the way one expresses their gender.
She then highlighted the importance of these distinctions in the medical field.
“When we go out clinically we face situations we were not trained to face,” Cunningham said.
One example given looked at how, when working with patients in the clinic, referring to a patient’s husband or wife has become more complicated since same-sex marriage has become legal. Students have learned that it’s not a given that patients have a heterosexual marriage.
“It’s important to not make assumptions before meeting another person and hearing their narrative,” said Aishan Shi, a student leader of the LGBTQ in Medicine student organization. “But it’s also important not to make assumptions after.”
“Human brains are wired to compartmentalize information,” Shi said. “We take in how another person appears, sounds and behaves, and we make assumptions about who they are.”
The talk emphasized that these assumptions can be detrimental in a medical or educational environment.
“People, as a group and as individuals, are dynamic and the human experience exists on a very wide spectrum,” Shi said.
Shi spoke about how influential education is on people and how that influence makes it a potentially valuable tool to help understand diversity.
“It would be wonderful for diversity of all sorts, including LGBTQ, to be taught and celebrated throughout a child’s education,” Shi said.
Shi said this would be a way for the community as a whole to develop “a safe space for the LGBTQ community.”
The impact of the educational environment on students of the LGBTQ community starts with the teacher, said Samedi Johnson, a sophomore at ASU who is a director of the school’s Rainbow Coalition.
“I know of a couple transgender students who get miscalled by their teacher, which has and can cause students to drop out,” they said.
Johnson said heteronormative language can make trans students feel nonexistent and affects the student’s desire to continue their education.
To improve on the issue, Johnson said, professors could start by using more gender-neutral terms, or if the course talks about marriage, they should acknowledge that gay people exist and can get married.
Johnson said as students the most important thing is “being aware that there are LGBTQ people in our class.”
According to LGBT Map, in Arizona 3.9 percent of adults identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender.
According to the Center for Disease Control, LGBT youth are more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide as their heterosexual peers, and one study found that around 25 percent of trans individuals reported suicide attempts.
“We have tremendous opportunity and ability to change this path,” Cunningham said.
Contact the reporter at rsavitz@asu.edu.
