Virtual Symposium Will Address Issues Affecting LGBTQIA+ Communities

What: Fourth Annual LGBTQIA+ National Symposium and Community Fair
When: Friday, Feb. 11, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: Virtual via Zoom. Register at aztelemedicine.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BZBQZ0BnTYOj3qSKdq7yPA

Health professionals, educators and community leaders will address discrimination, health care disparities and legal issues faced by members of the LGBTQIA+ community during the Fourth Annual LGBTQIA+ National Symposium and Community Fair on Friday, Feb. 11.

“The symposium aims to address inequities in care surrounding LGBTQIA+ communities,” said Lydia Kennedy, MEd, senior director in the UArizona Health Sciences Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities identifies the LGBTQIA+ community as a “health disparity population,” in part because individuals who identify as part of this group have less access to health care. 

Kennedy said LGBTQIA+ Arizonans often suffer from food insecurity, depressive disorders, homelessness and lack of access to care.

“We’re in the business of healing, not hurting others, and when we have less access to care or discriminatory practices in health care, it affects health and health outcomes,” Kennedy said.

The virtual symposium will feature expert speakers, student poster presentations, a crowdfunding opportunity and networking. The topics and speakers include:

• Achieving Health Equity (Keynote address)
  Alex Keuroghlian MD, MPH, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
• Sexual and Gender Minorities Health Research at the National Institutes of Health
  Christopher Barnhart, PhD, science policy analyst in the Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office at the National Institutes of Health
• Gender Affirmation Through a Social Justice Lens
  Johanna Olson-Kennedy, MD, director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
• Implicit and Unconscious Bias: Addressing Bias toward the LGBTQIA+ Community
  Cei Lambert, educator and activist
• Legal Determinants of LGBTQ+ Health
  Wesley Hartman, Hartman & McLaughlin PLLC
• Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data Collection and Use in Clinical Settings
  Madeline Deutsch, MD, MPH, associate professor of family and community medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine

Organizers will hold a crowdfunding campaign with a goal of raising $25,000. The funds will be used to create a permanent endowment through the University of Arizona Foundation to support the symposium and provide scholarships to students who demonstrate a commitment to ensuring inclusion and equity for LGBTQIA+ people and communities.