Q&A: NECO, PRIDE ODs bring together ‘queer people and allies’ for LGBTQIA+ education
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June is Pride Month, and this year marks the 55th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York — a pivotal event in our nation’s LGBTQIA+ history.
In honor of this milestone, New England College of Optometry (NECO) announced it will partner with People Respecting Inclusion, Diversity and Equity of LGBTQIA+ ODs (PRIDE ODs) — an inclusive organization for LGBTQIA+ students, optometrists and allies in the optometry community — to host the second-annual Queer Symposium. The organization was founded in spring 2023 and held its first symposium last September.
Healio spoke with Alyssa Lancaster, OD, FAAO, founder of PRIDE ODs about this year’s symposium and what optometrists can do for Pride Month.
Healio: What can you tell us about PRIDE ODs?
Lancaster: When I was an optometry student, I co-founded a student group for the LGBTQIA+ community and when I became an optometrist, I wanted to start something similar. PRIDE ODs formed in the foundation of not only having a group of queer people and allies come together and support one another, but also provide appropriate care for patients and educate others on why patient care in this population is so important.
We are now planning educational events and beginning to discuss more about education for students and whether it should be mandated that every student receives education on LGBTQIA+ optometry care. We’re also looking into providing scholarship opportunities for students in the future. We’re casting a wide net, but we’re still very early in the development of PRIDE ODs.
In general, the biggest goal is just having a space for people to have discussions and provide education for certain populations that are more vulnerable than others.
Healio: Are there other organizations that focus on LGBTQIA+ issues in optometry?
Lancaster: As far as I’m aware, there’s nothing else like this on a national level. However, there are several student groups at schools. At Illinois College of Optometry, for example, I co-founded Queer Eye, and NECO has PRISM; they were among the first groups formed. While they are obviously much smaller and specific to those schools, we’re hoping to work with those student groups to help them network among themselves and create a wide network of people across the country.
Healio: What is the Queer Symposium that PRIDE ODs is coordinating with NECO?
Lancaster: I work for NECO, and they’ve been extremely supportive of PRIDE ODs, which has been great. We had our first symposium last September and we’re hoping to do a Queer Symposium every year to provide continuing education. We didn’t have COPE-approved CE last year, but we do this year, which is nice. Every year is going to be different.
Last year, we focused on basic definitions and things that impact this population, and we had a lecture on proper ways to treat patients and run your office. We also had a panel discussing personal situations and a lecture on the academic side of the LGBTQIA+ education.
This year, we’re getting a little bit more specific, with lectures that highlight cases in LGBTQIA+ health care, including transgender patient situations that were difficult to navigate and how optometrists helped. I am co-lecturing on transgender and gender nonconforming care, including why this population experiences health disparities. At the end of the month, Katherine Williams, PhD, will give a lecture about intersectionality and the queer experience.
We’d also like to combine last year’s symposium with this year’s in a webinar format and have a CE certificate through NECO, so people who missed the event can still participate and learn.
We’re hoping as this grows we can provide education quarterly or, ideally, have an in-person meeting where we can network. This kind of symposium is to provide education that’s not available right now, specifically regarding this population, and help people understand why it’s important.
Healio: What unique health care challenges do LGBTQIA+ patients face, and how can optometrists help?
Lancaster: Let’s take a transgender patient whose had top or bottom surgery. Does that affect eye care? Not really. It’s nice that we don’t always need to get into that, but being adequate providers for patients and being aware of their health care settings is still important. Maybe they experienced trauma with another health care provider who dead-named them or misgendered them and they’re worried about seeing another doctor.
There was a study done that said about 25% of transgender people don’t get care when they need it because they’re scared of being misgendered or may be afraid the provider will not be knowledgeable about their situation. I hope that statistic is lower in optometry, because if you need glasses, you need glasses. Hopefully, people are not avoiding eye care as much as general health care, but it’s important to be aware of those discrepancies and know that these patients are vulnerable and may have had poor history of health care experiences. You can be an ally for them.
If you’re an educated provider, you can avoid making that person feel like that again. If you do a good job of taking care of them, they’re more likely to come back to you. They are loyal patients who just want to be treated like everyone else. It’s important to be aware and be sensitive but also not pry about things irrelevant to their eyes. It’s a fine line, and that’s why we’re trying to educate.
Also, like anything else, certain medications can affect the eyes, and this population may be more at risk than others.
Healio: What unique challenges do LGBTQIA+ providers face in the workplace, and what can colleagues do to support them?
Lancaster: The first is providing good health care coverage for your staff who are LGBTQIA+. For example, my partner and I want to have a child, but we have to go through IVF or other treatment, and it’s important to provide insurance that’s going to cover that. Having insurance plans that recognize coverage for situations that are relevant to this community is critical. If I were transgender and wanted to undergo surgery, what would that look like for my insurance coverage?
If someone feels like they’re being treated differently or being discriminated against, they should be able to say something. If I felt like I was being mistreated at work based on my gender, gender identity or sexual orientation, I would not want to work there. Also, it’s important to not tokenize people. Just because I’m a nonbinary person here at NECO, I shouldn’t have to coordinate all the lectures regarding these topics, unless I want to — and I do.
It’s important for employees to not just be recognized for one identity, which gets into intersectionality. Someone who is transgender might also be disabled or a person of color, and those things all come into play. Being part of the LGBTQIA+ community is not the only identity to be aware of.
Healio: What is intersectionality, and why is it important for providers to understand it?
Lancaster: When we’re talking about social determinants of health, in the LGBTQIA+ population, race is often a huge part of that as well. A cisgender white man in LGBTQIA+ population is going to be seen differently than a Black transgender woman. It’s important to be aware of how those things are always at play. That Black transgender women may have stronger health disparities than the cisgender white man.
I want to be recognized for being nonbinary and queer, but that’s not the only thing about me. Again, it’s a fine line: It’s not the first thing you need to address with someone, but recognize and understand that there are many things going on behind the scenes that you may not understand.
Healio: What is your take-home message for optometrists?
Lancaster: We all take the optometric oath and we’re told to treat everyone equally and provide equitable care. But unless you educate yourself and really understand your patients’ situations, you’re not truly providing equitable health care. Coming to lectures, educating yourself, doing the work on your own — none of this is easy. I’m not perfect at it, either. We’ve all misgendered people and we’ve all made mistakes, but in general, I think putting in the time for your patients to learn about different sexualities and different gender identities that you might not have been familiar with 10 years ago, or even last year, will do a lot to help them.
Healio: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Lancaster: We’re always looking for people to help plan symposia and events or lecture for us. There are people out there who are passionate about this, but they don’t know how to help. I definitely think there’s so much we still want to accomplish.
References:
- All eyes on Pride 2024. https://www.neco.edu/news/all-eyes-on-pride-2024/. Published May 31, 2024. Accessed June 11, 2024.
- Pride month 2024 at NECO. https://www.neco.edu/pride-month-2024-at-neco/. Accessed June 11, 2024.
- The report of the 2015 U.S. transgender survey executive summary. https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS-Executive-Summary-Dec17.pdf. Published December 2016. Accessed June 24, 2024.
For more information:
Alyssa Lancaster, OD, FAAO, founder of PRIDE ODs, is currently an assistant professor of clinical optometry at New England College of Optometry and an attending optometrist at the Dimock Center. Lancaster, who is returning to the Illinois College of Optometry in July as a clinical professor, can be reached at alyssalan19@gmail.com; Instagram: @alyssalan19.
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