​​​​​​​​June has always been one of my favorite months. Mostly because my birthday is June 21, but another fantastic reason to be excited for June is because it's Pride Month.

I love following all the events happening all over the city. Our team at Q102 has always been involved in the Pride Parade and partners on many Pride events happening during June. They're a blast to attend.

The interesting thing is, I never really knew why we celebrated Pride in June, so I looked it up. I found out that Pride is celebrated in June because that was the month that the Stonewall riots happened. These riots were important protests that took place in 1969, which ended up changing gay rights in the U.S. and all around the world.

In honor of Pride Month, I reached to Dr. Christian Gausvik with The Christ Hospital Physicians – Primary Care. He is honored to serve our Tri-State LGBTQ+ community as a primary care physician at The Christ Hospital. We like to call him Dr. G.

Care-delay statistics in the LGBTQ+ community

New statistics are showing that members of the LGBTQ+ community are delaying healthcare. Dr. Gausvik elaborated, “LGBTQ+ adults are 26% more likely than straight adults to delay or defer healthcare, and over 25% have not had any health screenings in the previous year in a recent study of over 2000 adults."

Dr. Gausvik cites these statistics from the same study to address why this may be happening:

• LGBTQ+ people feel dismissed by their doctor at a rate twice as high as cisgendered patients.
• LGBTQ+ patients are less likely to be insured.
• 10% of patients have been refused care because of their sexuality and nearly the same percentage have experienced abusive language from a healthcare professional.
• Among trans patients, 30% have experienced a refusal of care by a doctor.
• LGBTQ+ patients have about 30% less trust in physicians than the rest of the population.

Trust is critical for quality care

I feel so many things when I think about someone not getting the care they need because of their sexuality. There are so many challenges in our everyday lives—speaking to your professional medical provider about anything shouldn't be one of them.

Dr. Gausvik said that LGBTQ+ people often have challenges trusting their doctors. He said, “I believe that the basis of a good relationship with your doctor is trust: that they will care for you regardless of who you are, that they will present you all options fairly, and that you will not be judged. In the end that trust leads to effective communication, and that is what allows quality medical care and encourages people to keep coming back to stay healthy."

Find a medical professional you can trust

Finding a medical professional that you can trust can be challenging, but Dr. Gausvik had a few suggestions on how you can do that.

He said, “You can ask friends and use word of mouth, you can find doctors on specific directories and be sure to read their bios on the health system website, see what they say about themselves, their interests and who they treat. Being able to align with your doctor is so important. Building a relationship with your doctor takes honesty and open communication. It helps build the doctor-patient relationship, consistency and regular check ins, asking the right questions and being engaged in your health."

Need help finding a supportive medical professional? Visit TheChristHospital.com/Pride​ to meet a few of our providers and for additional LGBTQ+ health resources.