Surviving and Surpassing Stigma – The LGBTQ Experience
It is important that every person has the opportunity to achieve his or her full health potential. Health organizations from the local to national and global levels are finding ways to eliminate chronic disease and, with it, the painful illness experience. With all these efforts, stigma remains an issue worldwide, especially among members of racial and ethnic minority populations. In this week’s discussions, we will focus on one cultural group, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) community, and the experience of stigma in living with a chronic illness.
 
As others join in the discussion, read what has already been posted. Do not post mini-papers; rather add substantively and contextually to the discussion. We will go through the questions one at a time, moving on to the next question once we have fully explored the current one. Time goes quickly, so post frequently. The earlier in the week that you begin posting, the deeper the conversation and learning will be.
 
Let’s first begin with an opinion question:
 
Stigma impacts people and communities from the local to the global level. Stigma involves viewing a person or group as “less than” other persons or groups, due to a perceived difference or deficiency. As you learned in your module 1 readings, someone who is stigmatized is devalued and unaccepted in his or her community. Before you begin this week’s readings, let’s think about our own communities. Considering this description of stigma, to what extent is stigma a problem for one or more groups in your community? What is the community doing to address these concerns?
 
Now, let’s apply this week’s learning materials to address the remaining questions related to the One Colorado video, one at a time.
 
One1Colorado (2013, June 5).
 
One Colorado: Invisible: The state of LGBT health (Links to an external site.)
 
. [Video File 09:57 minutes]
 
Let’s think about the influence of stigma on the people profiled in the video. First, what stigmatizing influences played particularly strong roles in the health care experiences faced by Lorena, Brad, Nita and/or Kyle? Focus on 1-2 people in your response. To what extent did their experiences relate to their identification as LGBTQ? Use your readings to support your responses.
 
Now that we have identified some stigma challenges and explored the connections with how it has impacted the lives of these individuals’ health outcomes, let’s discuss some of the consequences of the stigma on their lives and health outcomes. The interviewees eloquently described some consequences. Let’s talk about these, but be sure to also delve deeper and use your readings and other videos to identify outcomes (actual or potential) that were not overtly stated.
 
What can be done to decrease the compounding stigma impacts of chronic illness and identification with the LGBTQ community? Support your recommendations with the readings and videos.