Monday, September 16, 2019

IQ Award Winner addresses lack of LGBT healthcare

The International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers wrapped up its first day of meetings in Dublin, Ireland, September 2019 with the presentation of  the US International Film & Video Festival IQ One World Award to “What Goes Unsaid,” an entry from the National LGBT Cancer Network, New York City.
IQ sponsors and selects the award winner.
The film addresses disparities in healthcare for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and exists thanks to Liz Margolies, executive director of the Network. Margolies founded The National LGBT Cancer Network in 2007 to address the needs of LGBT people with cancer and those at risk. 
“At that time there were a few lesbian breast cancer programs across the country, but no one was looking at the disproportionate cancer burden carried by all subpopulations of the LGBT community,” Margolies wrote in an email. “Our work consists of educating the LGBGT community about our increased cancer risks and the importance of screening and early detection, training healthcare providers to offer more safe, welcoming and culturally competent care to the LGBT patients, and advocating for LGBT inclusion in national cancer organizations, research and the media.”
The Network began at her kitchen table and grew through grants from private foundation, local and regional health departments and the Centers for Disease Control. In 2010, the Network got a grant from New York City to develop an LGBT cultural competence curriculum to be used to train all 38,000 workers in the municipal hospital system. The proposal included the creation of a video. To bring about change in healthcare providers, we have to change their knowledge, attitude and behavior, Margolies says. The film points out that 20 percent of trans and GNC (gender nonconformity) people have reported being turned away by a healthcare provider, simply for being trans or GNC.

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