An LGBTQ activist group’s video series features Biden’s top Health and Human Services (HHS) official Rachel [Richard] Levine, M.D. celebrating an influx of LGBTQ individuals into the medical field and the idea that gender ideology is now expanding in medical school training.
In a video from the series called “Authentic Voices of Pride,” produced by LGBTQ Nation, Levine, the assistant secretary for health at HHS, says it is important for healthcare providers to offer “culturally competent care,” a narrative of the Biden administration that uses the Marxist strategy of labeling a campaign that intends to be divisive with a seemingly innocuous name to make it easy to condemn those who disagree with it.
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“In this case, for our LGBTQI+ community, I think it needs to start in our training, in school,” Levine stated, adding:
I think it’s absolutely wonderful that LGBTQI plus people are being educated to work in health care and are working in this field. I think it’s really important that as we do that, we expand care for members of our community, that we educate our peers and allies in terms of cultural competency.
In Levine’s full video, the assistant secretary asserted there are “disparities” between the health needs of LGBTQ+ people and others because it is known that LGBTQ+ individuals have higher rates of:
- Chronic illness
- Depression and anxiety
- Mental health issues
Yet, Levine said that “there’s nothing inherent in being ‘on the rainbow,’ so to speak, that would lead someone to have these mental health difficulties.”
“It’s because of the systemic oppression, systemic racism that we have seen in the United States and in the United States healthcare industry which has led to these really historic inequities,” Levine said.
Jona Tanguay, a transgender physician’s assistant who is vice president for education at Health Professional Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality (GLMA), also appeared in the video and stated, “We first have to acknowledge that we’ve made great strides, especially in the base levels of tolerance.”
“More and more health care providers know to ask about pronouns, are putting materials out in their waiting rooms that are more gender neutral,” Tanguay continued, but then adds:
However, I really think the next step is getting the content to healthcare providers, and what does that look like? It means really targeting health professional training schools, making sure that they have an adequate amount of curriculum.
A group called Do No Harm, a diverse group of physicians, healthcare professionals, medical students, patients, and policymakers, is seeking, instead, to protect healthcare from this radical, divisive, and ultimately discriminatory ideology.
Stanley Goldfarb, M.D., board chair of Do No Harm, told The Star News Network that “all patients should receive optimum care.”
“This includes all individuals unrelated to their sexual orientation, or any psychological disturbances that they may suffer from,” Goldfarb explained:
The concept of culturally competent care is actually quite absurd. The United States is a country that contains literally hundreds of different cultures as it has always attracted huge immigrant populations. Even within the African-American community, there are individuals from many different geographical locations, each of which has its own cultural characteristics. Patients must be treated as individuals, not as members of a group. What all patients require is a competent physician who is a sensitive and empathetic human being and is completely knowledgeable in the healthcare needs of his or her patients.
“Recruiting individuals into the healthcare workforce because of their skin color or sexual orientation at the expense of their academic achievements is a prescription for creating a much less capable healthcare workforce,” Goldfarb said. “No American needs that.”
Jane Orient, M.D., executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), questions the continued use of the word “community” by LGBTQ individuals.
“How can LGBTQ+ be a ‘community?’” Orient posed to The Star News Network:
Members can’t reproduce in the normal way. The various components don’t like each other. What do L’s and G’s have in common except dislike of the opposite sex? What is their record on long-term stable relationships? One thing they seem to have in common, according to the clips, is a need for frequent HIV tests – and what about tests for other STDs?
“Healthcare used to be about preventing illness, not affirming, and thereby increasing, unhealthy behavior,” Orient said. “When I was in medical school long ago, we didn’t have delusional persons lecturing to us about the need to affirm their delusions. Asking about pronouns? Where does that fit in the review of systems? What illness do pronouns help to diagnose?”
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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Rachel Levine” by Governor Tom Wolf. CC BY 2.0.
