Pride Month is often filled with color, celebration, and community. But behind the parades and posts, there is another truth that deserves attention: many LGBTQ+ people are still trying to find healthcare that feels safe.
Safe enough to say who they love. Safe enough to share their pronouns. Safe enough to ask about sexual health without shame. Safe enough to talk about mental health, gender-affirming care, cancer screening, fertility, family planning, HIV prevention, or chronic conditions without wondering whether the provider will judge them, dismiss them, or refuse to understand.
For many people, that fear is not imagined. In a 2024 KFF survey, LGBTQ+ adults were about twice as likely as non-LGBTQ+ adults to say they had been treated unfairly or with disrespect by a doctor or healthcare provider in the past three years.1
This matters for public health because when people do not feel safe accessing care early, the impact can show up across every part of health. Screenings may be missed, mental health needs may go untreated, HIV and STI prevention may be delayed, chronic conditions may worsen, and gender-affirming care can become harder to navigate.1
Healthcare should not require someone to shrink themselves to be treated well. This guide explains why LGBTQ+ people often face healthcare barriers, how those barriers affect health, and where to find trusted resources for support.
What LGBTQ+ Means, In Plain Language
LGBTQ+ is a broad term that includes many people and many lived experiences. The letters often stand for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning.2 The plus sign includes other identities, such as intersex, asexual, pansexual, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and more.2
Sexual orientation is about who someone is attracted to or has relationships with. Gender identity is about someone’s internal sense of being a man, woman, both, neither, or another gender.2 Sex assigned at birth is the label someone was given when they were born, often based on body parts. These are connected for some people, but they are not the same thing.2
No one LGBTQ+ experience speaks for everyone. A Black lesbian mother, a young nonbinary person in a rural town, a transgender man needing cervical cancer screening, a bisexual person in a heterosexual-presenting relationship, and an older gay man living alone may all face different healthcare needs and different safety concerns.2
That is why affirming healthcare must be specific, not generic. It should respect the whole person.2
Why Healthcare Can Feel Harder For LGBTQ+ Communities
Healthcare is supposed to be about healing, but for many LGBTQ+ people, it has also been a place of harm.
Some people have been misgendered or deadnamed, meaning they were called a name they no longer use.1 Some have had their sexual orientation ignored or treated like a risk factor instead of a normal part of life.1 Some have been asked invasive questions that were not medically needed. Some have been denied care, blamed for their symptoms, or made to educate their own provider.1
LGBTQ+ people have experienced discrimination and harm from healthcare systems and medical science, and that unfair treatment can shape health risks and access to care.1
Fear can also build before the appointment even starts. A person may wonder:
- Will this clinic respect my name and pronouns?
- Will they understand my body and my health needs?
- Will they assume things about my sex life?
- Will my insurance cover the care I need?
- Will my privacy be protected?
- Will I be safe if I live in a place where LGBTQ+ people are being targeted?
These questions can make care feel heavy. And when care feels unsafe, people may avoid it.
How Fear And Stress Can Affect Health for LGBTQ+ Communities
Fear is not just an emotion. It can affect the body and the choices people feel safe enough to make.3
When someone expects rejection or mistreatment, they may delay preventive care, avoid screenings, skip mental health support, or hold back important details during a medical visit. Over time, this can lead to later diagnoses and more serious health problems.3
LGBTQ+ youth show how serious this can become. Stigma, discrimination, harassment, family disapproval, social rejection, and violence can put LGBTQ+ youth at increased risk for negative health and life outcomes.3 The Trevor Project’s 2024 national survey found that 39% of LGBTQ+ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, and about half of transgender and nonbinary young people did so.4
This does not mean being LGBTQ+ causes poor health. It means stigma, rejection, fear, and barriers to care create stress that can harm health.4
Support can change that picture. Affirming families, safe schools, trusted providers, community support, and respectful healthcare can all help protect mental and physical health.4
Why Intersectionality Matters For LGBTQ+ Healthcare
LGBTQ+ people do not live one identity at a time.5
A person may be LGBTQ+ and Black, Latino, Indigenous, Asian, disabled, low-income, undocumented, older, rural, Muslim, Christian, formerly incarcerated, uninsured, or living with HIV. Each layer can shape what healthcare feels like.5
A Black transgender woman may face racism, transphobia, sexism, and safety concerns at the same time.5 A queer immigrant may worry about language access, privacy, or whether seeking care could expose them to harm.5 A bisexual person may feel erased by providers who assume they are straight or gay based on their current partner. An older LGBTQ+ adult may fear long-term care settings where they feel pressure to hide who they are.5
This is important because “inclusive care” cannot be a rainbow sticker at the front desk and nothing else. Safer care means understanding how bias, race, income, gender, sexuality, geography, disability, and culture can overlap.5
What Safer, More Affirming Healthcare Looks Like for LGBTQ+ People
Affirming care is not special treatment. It is respectful, accurate, patient-centered care. A safer healthcare setting may include intake forms that allow the correct name, pronouns, gender identity, sex assigned at birth, and sexual orientation when medically relevant.1
Staff should use the name and pronouns a person shares. Providers should ask questions in a respectful way and explain why a question matters. The clinic should protect privacy and avoid making assumptions about someone’s body, partners, family, or sexual history.1
Affirming care also means knowing what screenings and services a person needs based on their body parts, risk factors, age, and health history, not just their gender marker in a chart.1
For example:
- A transgender man with a cervix may still need cervical cancer screening.
- A transgender woman may need prostate health conversations if she has a prostate.
- A lesbian or bisexual woman may still need breast cancer and cervical cancer screening.
- A gay or bisexual man may need HIV and STI prevention support, but he should not be reduced to only sexual health.
Good care sees the whole person.
Trusted LGBTQ+ Health Resources For Finding Safer Care And Support
Finding an affirming provider can take time, but trusted directories and community resources can help.
1. GLMA LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory
The GLMA directory is a free, searchable tool that helps LGBTQ+ patients find inclusive providers in the United States and Canada. It can be useful for people looking for primary care, mental health care, sexual health care, or other support.
2. OutCare Health
OutCare Health offers a nationwide LGBTQ+ health resource directory and provider search. Its site reminds users to confirm that a provider is licensed and accepts their insurance before scheduling, which is an important cost and safety step.
3. CenterLink LGBTQ+ Community Center Directory
CenterLink connects LGBTQ+ community centers and organizations. Local centers may offer support groups, health navigation, HIV testing referrals, housing resources, youth programs, legal referrals, and community connection.
4. Planned Parenthood
Some Planned Parenthood health centers offer LGBTQ+ services, including sexual health care, STI testing, HIV testing, PrEP referrals, contraception, and gender-affirming hormone therapy in some locations. Services vary by state and health center, so people should check local availability.
5. The Trevor Project
The Trevor Project provides free, confidential crisis support for LGBTQ+ young people by phone, chat, or text, 24/7 in the U.S.
6. Trans Lifeline
Trans Lifeline is a peer support hotline run by and for trans people. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention lists Trans Lifeline as a crisis and peer support resource for trans and questioning people.
These resources are not a guarantee that every experience will be perfect. But they can make it easier to start from a place of support instead of searching alone.
How Healthcare Systems Can Help Their LGBTQ+ Patients
The burden should not sit only on LGBTQ+ patients. Healthcare systems need to build safer care into the way they work. That includes staff training, inclusive forms, privacy protections, clear nondiscrimination policies, gender-inclusive restrooms, respectful language, accurate sexual health education, and referral networks for affirming care.1
Clinics should also understand that LGBTQ+ people are not a side population. LGBTQ+ patients are in every community, every zip code, every race, every faith background, every age group, and every income level.1
A clinic that is safer for LGBTQ+ people is often safer for everyone because it is more respectful, more clear, and less built on assumptions.
A Call To Action For Our LGBTQ+ Community Members
Safer, more affirming healthcare is not a luxury. It is part of helping people live longer, healthier, more supported lives.
For LGBTQ+ communities, especially those living at the intersections of race, gender, income, geography, disability, and faith, healthcare can carry real fear. But no one should have to navigate that fear alone.
Inside the NOWINCLUDED app, we believe trusted health education should help people feel informed, seen, and supported. Use this guide to learn what affirming care can look like, explore trusted resources, and share support with someone who may be looking for care that respects all of who they are.
References
- Palosky, C. (2024, April 2). Survey: LGBT Adults Are Twice as Likely as Others to Say They’ve Been Treated Unfairly or with Disrespect by a Doctor or Other Health Care Provider. Retrieved from KFF: https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/survey-lgbt-adults-are-twice-as-likely-as-others-to-say-theyve-been-treated-unfairly-or-with-disrespect-by-a-doctor-or-other-health-care-provider/
- López, Q. (2022, October 28). What Does LGBTQ+ Mean? A Queer Historian Breaks Down Every Letter Under the Umbrella. Retrieved from them: https://www.them.us/story/what-does-lgbtq-mean-lgbtqia-stands-for-queer-history
- Franklin, C. C. (2024). Poorer Health in the LGBTQ+ Community Due to Fear of Mistreatment. Journal of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America. doi:10.55275/JPOSNA-2023-625
- The Trevor Project. (2024). 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People. Retrieved from The Trevor Project: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2024/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9FY_B3v7dfmEcBb_WXvVV3CIUymzyqBlXq0elVoNglQNHJOuYRMbP25NwwuOhjlGZmJ9IWJ4G4Z-JkMM-34NCRs8YbGVnqqBKCW52q6bPDCP4bO7M&_hsmi=305272848&utm_content=3052728
- Ng, H. H. (2016). Intersectionality and Shared Decision Making in LGBTQ Health. LGBT Health. doi:10.1089/lgbt.2016.0115
