Last evening was the annual Washington, DC Capital TransPride (@DCTransPride365) rewind, held a few months out from the TransPride celebration as a review and planning for next year.
2019 marks my 7th Capital TransPride attendance. It marks my first participation as a Capital Pride (@CapitalPrideDC) photographer – the best photographs are ones of humans in control of their health and life destiny.
In parallel I read this excellent piece by Safer, et. al (reference below), which marks how far we have come as a medical profession, since other landmark pieces were published, such as this one in 2013 (See this blog post: Now Reading: Care of Transsexual Persons — NEJM, in the era of inclusion)
The clear statement about ethical responsibility:
Is it ethical or legal for clinicians to decline to care for a patient on the basis ofgender identity?
Targeting specific medical conditions for discriminatory behavior is a straightforward violation of standard professional practice. Most major medical societies are developing best practices related to transgender health care. Safer JD, Tangpricha V. Care of the Transgender Patient. Ann Intern Med [Internet]. 2019 Jul 2 [cited 2019 Jul 3];171(1):ITC1. Available from: http://annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/AITC201907020
Failure to listen = failure, Success in listening = success
The post of this blog, going back 7 years, details fairly egregious examples of ignorance and animus directed at people who are LGBTQ, and specifically transgender, by the medical profession. It’s possible now to look back at what was done and be aghast. I’ve also documented every single of the 7 Capital TransPrides I’ve been to. If anyone wants to write a book about this journey….
The statement above is accurate and describes the curent point of view of the combined medical, nursing, and allied health professions in the United States. And why wouldn’t it – the medical profession learned in the last century, quite painfully, that dictating human identity or existence fails 100 % of the time.
On the other hand, supporting human beings as they develop and grow as their authentic selves, in control of their health and life destiny, is successful. Love always wins 🙂 .
This is the frame I bring to Capital TransPride now as I meet and interact with humans, their families, communities, and a wide swath of health professionals (unprecedented in 2019) filled with the spirit of success, as well as the drive to make things right when they are not.
I wish this experience on every nurse and doctor in their lifetime.
Enjoy the photos from Capital Transpride 2019 below.
Reference
Safer JD, Tangpricha V. Care of the Transgender Patient. Ann Intern Med [Internet]. 2019 Jul 2 [cited 2019 Jul 3];171(1):ITC1. Available from: http://annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/AITC201907020