You’re Supposed to be Cared For: LGBTQ Experiences of Violence at the Doctor’s Office

• In Event: 306 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 15. Sexuality and Health II

Abstract

What compels LGBTQ individuals to seek—or avoid seeking—health care? This paper draws from a larger study of sexual and gender identity minorities’ health care interactions to provide a sociological analysis of one patient’s experience of violence within a doctor’s office. I use Herek’s conceptual framework of sexual stigma and heterosexism (2004, 2007) in tandem with Kelly’s concept of the continuum (1987) to argue that institutionalized biomedical notions of sex and gender make LGBTQ patients uniquely vulnerable to a continuum of mistreatment—including sexualized violence—during health care interactions. This case study further illuminates how heterosexist concepts of gender and sexuality shift the responsibility of provider comprehension away from the medical system onto the shoulders of sexual and gender identity minority patients. In the case of negative health care encounters wherein patients feels unable to self-advocate and confront doctors, biomedical heterosexism facilitates a doubly-painful effect: after feeling violated, patients may then internalize responsibility for the event and interpret their momentary inability to confront providers and take further action as personal failures in accountability and LGBTQ advocacy. Lastly, through this participant’s narrative, I examine how resilience may be exercised to overcome a violent medical encounter. This paper contributes insight into how sexual and gender identity minorities navigate queer gender expressions in the doctor’s office and sheds light on the social forces that shape LGBTQ experiences within the health care system.

Author

• Emily Allen Paine, University of Texas-Austin