When monkeypox (now officially termed “mpox” by the World Health Organization) first arrived in Michigan, Chris Petrat, clinical manager and nurse at Be Well Medical Center in Berkley, was prepared for whatever might be coming [...]
In December, Michigan-born writer and filmmaker Orion Couling, who is from Marquette, walked the red carpet alongside four actors with Down syndrome who gathered at the performing arts center in Skokie, Illinois to celebrate the [...]
Parenting a queer child comes with unique considerations. After all, LGBTQ+ people, despite advances in protections and rights (though, more recently, some terrifying pushbacks), may be better off than they were 20 or even 10 [...]
When it comes to LGBTQ+ mental health, representation matters. In fact, it’s at the heart of why Chris Grant, aka “The Queer Therapist” (@theqtherapist on Instagram), has dedicated so much professional time fostering a strong social [...]
At 30, I’ve had a lot of threesomes. I’ve identified as polyamorous my entire life, since I started dating at 15, though I wasn’t sexually active until age 21. You’d be surprised how many threesomes [...]
What’s in a name? Well, if you’re trans, and you’ve lived your life feeling trapped in the wrong body, referred to by incorrect pronouns and called something that does not align with your gender identity [...]
Gay men get down in a variety of ways, so if you’re not a top, bottom or vers, then maybe you’re a “side.” The term was coined right here in Michigan, by Royal Oak psychotherapist [...]
A 35-year-old working in film production, Geoff Moore had a pretty good sex life with his boyfriend. In fact, you could call it vigorous. Sometimes even exhausting. So when they both noticed fleshy bumps around [...]
After living in Atlanta for 30 years, Calvin Thompson decided to make a change at age 55. He took a new job in New Orleans and began settling into his new routine. “I had moved [...]
[Editor’s note: Some of the subjects interviewed for this story preferred to use only their first names to maintain anonymity.] While living in pre-pandemic New York City in early 2020, Brandon didn’t even think twice [...]
Having only lived in their new home for a matter of weeks, Ed Ploegar and Rick Hahn decided to make their way to their community's biweekly movie night for some entertainment and maybe to meet some of their new neighbors. To their pleasant surprise, the film shown was GLAAD Media Award-nominated.
It was 2004 and Deb Gustafson and her wife, Sue Weston, were planning on having a great time. The Flint couple was about to go on long-planned vacation when Gustafson started to feel unwell. Her family had a history of urinary tract and bladder infections and she suspected that her discomfort might be related. Eventually, when her symptoms didn't pass, she asked to go home and was rushed to the hospital.
A SAGE Table is a program of SAGE Metro Detroit, an agency dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ older adults, and is an intergenerational dinner event designed to start conversations with those of varying generations. The latest SAGE Table took place at the Ferndale Affirmations LGBTQ community center on April 4, and I was invited as a reporter to attend and experience the evening firsthand. Upon arrival, I was greeted at the door by Judy Lewis, SAGE Metro Detroit’s training and education manager.
Corktown Health Center is offering a six-session weekly support group for trans and non-binary clients to come together and process their experiences relating to gender identity. The group meets every Wednesday now through May 8 [...]
The Community Health Awareness Group, the largest minority AIDS service organization in Michigan, has been providing prevention and care services for some of Detroit's most vulnerable citizens for many years. To support the agency's mission [...]
I am often asked from clients and friends if I believe there is a healthy amount of alcohol that may be consumed on a regular basis. Of course, no one likes my response: actually no, there is not. However, I also like to reframe the question: How do you define healthy? More specifically, is there a use for alcohol?
After 15 years of serving transgender and non-binary patients, staff at the University Health Center in the University of Michigan understood there was still a big gap in the community’s healthcare: hormone initiation.
Metro Detroit has a wide and wonderful selection of food opportunities — unless you have allergies and diet restrictions, in which case you might be out of luck. I was diagnosed with a gluten intolerance in July of 2017. It was one of the worst and most confusing bits of news my whole life — gluten intolerance? I didn’t even believe in non-celiac gluten allergies! I didn’t want to stop eating cake. What about garlic bread? Oh no.
Oct. 5, 2010 started off just like any other day for Brandon La Forest. He woke up a little early, had a meeting at the office and was on his way to an appointment in Lansing. But just outside the city, while La Forest stopped to avoid an accident that had just happened in front of him, his life changed forever.
Decorative Artist Matt Lambert Explores Queer Body Politics To fully consume the queer concepts in Matt Lambert’s body of work, use your primordial senses: touch, sight, sex. The 28-year-old decorative artist has a BFA in [...]
The relationship between trans, queer and LGBIA+ patients and their healthcare providers has forever been a shaky one, as the medical community’s understanding of sex and gender has oftentimes failed to keep up with advancements in modern medicine.
DietBet Perfect for anyone who needs some extra motivation to lose weight, DietBet is the fun way to get fit—and get paid to do it. It’s unlike any other diet program, and it works: 96 [...]
LGBT Health Resources Removed from HHS Website A webpage devoted to lesbian and bisexual health, links to LGBT topics and other references were removed between September and October 2017 from WomensHealth.gov, a website maintained by [...]
Federal statistics report a 14.8 percent decline in HIV cases between 2008 and 2015, but 25- to 34-year-olds saw a nearly 45 percent increase in new cases New data released by the CDC last month [...]
We have all heard how the opioid epidemic is ravaging communities. In 2014 alone, drug overdose was the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., but prescription drugs are not the only killer, so is alcohol and illegal drugs. What you don’t hear is the specific numbers for how the LGBTQ community is being impacted: we are more than twice as likely than our heterosexual counterparts — 39.1 versus 17.1 percent — to have used any illicit drugs.
Members of the LGBTQ community face many unique health care challenges. They suffer from higher rates of smoking, depression, anxiety, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Compounding these challenges is the fact that LGBTQ individuals are more likely than others to experience difficulty accessing health care, due to a long history of anti-LGBTQ bias.
The Ingham County Health Department vaccinated staff and clientele at two local homeless shelters last week for hepatitis A following possible exposure and an increase in hepatitis A cases in the county. Three Ingham County [...]
MARK THIESMEYER, MS, MPH, RD Mark Thiesmeyer, MS, MPH, RD The stereotype of gay men being obsessed with our appearance aside, it's a sad fact that LGBTQ people as a whole are at greater [...]
BY DREW HOWARD A program purposed with addressing cancer-related needs in Metro Detroit has received additional funding that will go toward researching cancer disparities within the LGBTQ community. Launched in 2016 by Dr. Hayley S. [...]
Senior living community Henry Ford Village announced Oct. 24 that they are hosting a collaborative education experience program known as the Student Designer Show House with the interior design students from Eastern Michigan University and [...]
BY NATASHA WILSON AND JENNIFER SCHWARTZ Women's health has gained greater awareness in the last 20 years, in part due to political debate over reproductive rights, and growing understanding of women's experiences accessing healthcare. For [...]
BY PATRICK YANKEE The opening of Corktown Health Center (CHC) as Michigan's first nonprofit focused on delivering health care services to the LGBTQ community is an incredible milestone for Metropolitan Detroit and founding organization, Health [...]
HELPs staff has grown in the last 30 years from just a handful of dedicated individuals to around 30 people, who will provide culturally-competent care to LGBTQ patients. A clinical dietitian at the Corktown [...]
Abdul El-Sayed Gretchen Whitmer LANSING - Calling Michigan's HIV-specific felony law "discriminatory" and "wrong to criminalize sickness," the two declared candidates for the governor's office say it's time to reform the law. "I'm a [...]
SAGE, which stands for Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders, has been around for nearly 30 years. Based in New York, it is the country's largest and oldest organization dedicated to [...]
BY BTL STAFF Healthcare professional and health information management professionals can help create a healthcare environment that is non-judgmental and welcoming to patients of all backgrounds. The American Health Information Management Association's newest practice brief, [...]
BY BTL STAFF It is estimated that 1.4 million U.S. adults identify as transgender, according to an analysis based on new federal and state data. With such an empowering increase of LGBTQ inclusion, CipherHealth has [...]
BY BTL STAFF The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund is celebrating the seventh anniversary of the enactment of Obamacare with a call to action urging members of Congress to stop Trumpcare, the so-called American [...]
Dr. William Powers, DO, is well ahead of many practitioners in the state of Michigan when it comes to understanding and supporting LGBTQ healthcare issues. Specifically, he is addressing the biggest deficit - comprehensive care [...]
BY BTL STAFF There is an established link between levels of homophobic discrimination and depression, substance abuse and HIV vulnerability in gay men, according to a September article published by the Taylor & Francis Group. [...]
BY AJ TRAGER In an effort to end nicotine and tobacco addiction for LGBT Michigan residents, LGBT community centers across the state have teamed up to provide a multitude of programs and cessation techniques to [...]
BY AJ TRAGER ROCHESTER HILLS - Fifteen years ago when Robert Hellar joined the Metro Detroit Softball League (MDSL), the 10-team league was largely a group for men -- gay men to be precise -- [...]
BY AJ TRAGER LIVONIA - Tim Ross loves tennis. He started playing the sport when he was in fifth grade and has continued to follow his passion for the sport, not only in his routine [...]
Hosted by the National Coalition for LGBT Health, an April 20 webinar will discuss the numerous stigmas impacting the delivery of healthcare for transgender individuals. Presenters for the hour long webinar beginning at 2 p.m. [...]
BY AJ TRAGER DETROIT - The Fenway Institute and the Center for American Progress recently lobbied the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who will soon begin addressing the disparities affecting LGBT people in [...]
BY AJ TRAGER Kunto Howard, 24, project coordinator for "Breaking The Cycle," a program of LGBT Detroit, is working to help people stop smoking. Howard says smoking rates are significantly higher in the LGBT population. [...]
By Emell Derra Adolphus "I Love it, even with the injuries," says team member Tashia Pickett. BTL photos: Alexander Godin When you're watching the girls of the Detroit Pride football team, you won't see [...]
BY AJ TRAGER Joe Kort, Ph.D., LMSW, works as a sexual therapist in Royal Oak. He is known in the therapist community for his work with sex therapy and sexual identity issues, including out-of-control sexual [...]
By Christopher Treacy It felt like I was circling the drain. I got stuck in a vicious cycle, allowing some evil mechanism within me to destroy everything I tried to achieve while it simultaneously lied [...]
By Oriol R. Gutierrez Jr. I was hooked up to this and that, and in my heart and mind I was dying of AIDS. I still didnt talk about it. I hit rock bottom, and [...]
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