It's a basic human right
Dr Andrew Kelso, Medical Director at Newham Hospital, discusses the importance LGBTQ+ expression and why 'gayness saves lives' is his new slogan.
Tom Robinson has been reminding us to be glad to be gay since 1976.1
Since then, gayness (not a technical term, but I like it) has become beautifully mainstream – multiple examples on stage, television and in the written press are worlds away from the living memories of many of our childhoods and young adulthood. More than this, people that identify as queer and/or trans (the close cousins of gay-ness) are celebrated and we are able to publicly recognise sexual and gender expression in its widest sense.
However, the world is not always a cosy or secure place. In Britain, “1 in 5 LGBT people have experienced a hate crime as a result of their sexuality and/or gender identity in the past 12 months” 2. Murders and physical assaults are still motivated by homophobia in the UK, and there remain frequent examples of discrimination in the workplace as a result of sexuality. This is even more pronounced once we factor in intersectionality; incidents are more common in LGBTQ+ people who also experience racism. We know that being LGBTQ+ is OK, but there are often very compelling reasons to hide our true selves.
There is a reason that lots of people that identify as LGBTQ+ (and many cis heterosexual people) preferentially seek out each other’s company, why we have gay villages, gay holidays, gay dinner groups (that idea fills me with dread by the way, but each to their own…). It’s because we can let down our guard and be ourselves. Even if we think we are out at work (like I am), it is clear that I am “more out” when I am in an environment with a high gayness ratio. I can only imagine what are the lifelong effects of that sub-conscious censoring and checking of behaviour and thoughts. How much anxiety, stress and poor mental health does this cause? Even as a non-specialist (I wouldn’t call myself specialist in either gayness or mental health) I can see that this must be the case for many. I know it has been for me.
Other than wellbeing (if that wasn’t a good enough reason), there are other motivations to creating a world where everyone can always be their best selves. Those of us that identify as LGBTQ+ have a lived experience that we often observe privately, but which is characteristically different from our cis heterosexual colleagues. Like me, how many of us watched Russell T Davies’ TV series “It’s A Sin”, achingly beautiful and devastating at the same time. Despite everything we know and think, how many of us of my generation felt that all of a sudden we could share our view of the world, as if through a prism lens that could not usually be seen by heterosexual people. As if we could see a range of light and shade that was invisible to others. These insights, into a diversity that is hidden from many, are essential if we are to provide care and treatment for our patients. I’m not saying that you need gay doctors, gay nurses and gay therapists to treat gay patients, but as a collective we need to be able to contribute to the NHS using all of our own, powerful perspective. Our patients come from a diverse background, and our collective therapeutic and strategic response needs to reflect that.
All of us, LGBTQ+ and cis heterosexual, and any other definition of gender or sexuality that I’ve missed out, need to come together to support as full an expression of self by all of our colleagues as we can. We shouldn’t need a reason to do this – it is a basic human right. However, for those that need further convincing, there is another good reason to do this. By supporting LGBTQ+ colleagues to be their true selves at work and outside, we can provide better healthcare to our patients.
“Gayness Saves Lives” – it’s going to be my new slogan.
Dr Andrew Kelso, Medical Director at Newham Hospital.
1.Tom Robinson Band. (1978). Rising Free [Album]. EMI Records.
2.Bachmann, CL & Gooch, B. LGBT in Britain – Hate Crime and Discrimination. (2017). Stonewall. https://www.stonewall.org.uk/system/files/lgbt_in_britain_hate_crime.pdf