June 3, 2024 • 23 mins
In this enlightening episode, host Evelyn Erives sits down with Mita Beach, the passionate director of Gender Health and Wellness at DAP Health. Together, they delve into the unique challenges faced by the LGBTQIA+ community when it comes to health and wellness. From mental health support to inclusive healthcare practices, Mita shares valuable insights and strategies for promoting well-being.
For more information on this show's topic visit IEHP.org or (800) 440-IEHP.
For more information about DAP Health visit DAPHealth.org.
Reach out to Evelyn via Instagram @evelynerives or email her at EvelynErives@iHeartMedia.com
For more information on this show's topic visit IEHP.org or (800) 440-IEHP.
For more information about DAP Health visit DAPHealth.org.
Reach out to Evelyn via Instagram @evelynerives or email her at EvelynErives@iHeartMedia.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to Covering Your Health, awellness podcast dedicated to covering all areas of
living a healthy and happy lifestyle,from healthy hearts to understanding health plans and
everything in between. Each episode willprovide you with a better understanding of managing
your health, preventative care, andstaying on the right path for your family's
wellness journey. The Covering Your Healthpodcast is presented by i EhP. Now
(00:26):
your host Kevilina Revez. Well,Hello there, welcome back to another episode
of Covering your Health. Oh,it's going to be wonderful. I hope
you're finding yourself in a great spaceright now. This episode is very special
because it is coming out three daysinto the start of Pride Month. That
(00:49):
is right every June, we turnthe spotlight on our friends from the lgbt
QIA plus community by uplifting their voices, culture, achievements, and activism through
events planned throughout the month, includingright here in our own backyard of the
Inland Empire. Today, we arewelcomed by Meda Beach, the Director of
(01:11):
Gender Health and Wellness at DAP Health, a Coachella Valley based healthcare organization serving
more than eighty five thousand patients annuallyat twenty six fixed locations and eight mobile
units across two hundred and forty urbanand rule zip codes in Riverside and San
Diego Counties. MEDA who uses thepronouns. They then will speak about their
(01:37):
work with DAP Health and how Iwas mispronouncing it you'll see in a bit,
and how their own personal trans journeyempowers them to continue the fight toward
equitable access to healthcare for all.Welcome, Meda. How are you?
I'm great? How are you?I am wonderful. I'm so excited to
(01:57):
have you here. Pride mon ishere, baby, and we are excited
about it. Yay. Well,first, before we get going, I
want to ask a little bit aboutyourself. Me to tell me how you
began your career in healthcare. Howwas this pathway for you found? So
it started out early with my activism. I spent twenty years in corporate and
(02:25):
all during that I needed to servemy community. So I started as a
sexuality educator and a sex educator inthe community. And then when COVID hit
and there were corporate layoffs, Idecided to pivot and switch my career to
healthcare and serving my community. Wow. You know, I find that a
(02:49):
lot of people. Pivot was thatbig word, right, we all were
using it during COVID time. Everyonehad to do that in some sort of
way. And I find that alot of people found their new path during
that time. So there's a little, a little glimmer of light that actually
came from that dark time for somany of us. Yeah, okay,
well tell me, let's get let'sget going. Tell me how your own
(03:10):
personal experience played into the work thatyou do now with DAP health. Well,
so, I was a young personcoming to age in the early nineties,
and I saw a bunch of myelders passing away from HIV related illnesses.
(03:31):
And I was a queer kid inthe Deep South, and it was
hard, and you know, strugglingwith my own sexuality and gender identity.
You know, we didn't have languagearound being non binary really in the nineties.
But you know, one of theexamples I give people is I changed
(03:52):
my name because my name felt toomasculine, so I changed it, but
I didn't know why, right,Okay, for year, right, So
then you know, it was likecoming out as queer and then coming out
as non binary over like the nexttwenty years slowly led me to want to
speak to it, to other peopleand help people find access of care because
(04:16):
I've had problems finding access of careand I am I'm loud. I like
that, right, So when Iwhen I find problems, I speak up
because I'm loud, yes, andI'm stubborns. So I have struggled my
entire life trying to find effective primaryhealth care, effective sexual health care,
(04:45):
effective gender health care, to thepoint when COVID happened and I lost my
corporate job, I sold my houseand moved to California because I wanted to
find better, better health care formyself my partner. So that led me
to want to do this work.Right. How did you find DAP Health.
(05:06):
I moved to Palm Springs in themiddle of twenty twenty, and I
knew I wanted to work for aneed service organization or an LGBT health organization.
And I actually found DAP and whenthey were still a Desert AIDS project,
(05:27):
and applied for four or five jobsand never got a call back.
So I worked in some drug andalcohol rehab centers. I started working for
Barrego Health and their transgender diverse programand then was part of the acquisition when
DAP purchased Barrego Health last year.I see, I see now, am
(05:48):
I saying it wrong? Am Isaying DAP health when it should be DAP.
Yeah, it's DAP, Okay,I will change it from now on.
I am so sorry. I wasjust thinking that's what it was.
See ignorance. Sometimes that's why weask questions. So it's DAP Health because
we're trying to keep the legacy ofDesert AIDS project as we move forward to
(06:09):
being a full FQHC in supporting theentire community. I see, I totally
get it. Well, Now,tell me about what your community faces.
What are some of the biggest challengesthe health challenges specifically facing the LGBTQIA plus
community. So it's varying, right, So for me specifically with my program,
(06:32):
it's limited access to gender affirming care. Trans and gender diverse people have
encountered challenges accessing care for years,especially you know, hormone therapy, post
operative pre operative care, urgent caresettings specifically in the IE in in San
(06:53):
Diego County. We have problems becausewe have such rural areas and such a
limited access of providers. Providing thiscare, and then if we want to
drill that down even more to medicaland cover to California plans. You know,
there's some regulations about who you cansee and gender affirming care isn't a
(07:15):
specialty, so you have to getthat from your primary care and there's a
lack of education to those providers.But you know, when we stretch out
to the community as a whole,there's a lack of comprehensive sexual health and
wellness providers and providers that are fullyeducated and comfortable having these conversations. There
(07:44):
many many healthcare providers feel uncomfortable askingLGBTQ patients about their sexual practices due to
you know, insufficient training, personalbiases, fear of a sending or alienating
their patients. Right, So thisdiscomfort, I mean really it's a lack
(08:07):
of familiarity, right with different sexualpractices, different identities. And because of
that, the LGBTQ community from theirprimary care is having, you know,
a hard time getting basic sexual healthcoverage because you know, there's not these
(08:30):
open discussions happening with their providers,so they're not actually getting information about you
know, we have these medications thatcan stop you from contracting HIV. You
know, they're well tolerated medications thatcome in several different forms. Right,
we have a medication that, iftaken after a kind of less sexual encounter,
(08:54):
can help prevent you from catching certainSTIs. These conversations aren't happening because
providers aren't trained or comfortable having theseconversations. I think that the next big
one is discrimination and harassment of patientsbased on you know, provider or the
(09:18):
staff's biases on sexual orientation, genderidentity, gender expression. And this can
lead to people from the LGBTQ communitynot seeking treatment because they don't want to
have to deal with, you know, going into the er or going into
(09:41):
the urgent care and feeling like they'renot in a safe place, or feeling
like they're not being respected based onyou know, gender or sexuality. I
feel like this is a running sortof I don't know topic throughout all of
the podcast episodes that we done.It's a lack of trust. There seems
(10:03):
to be a lack of trust dependingon the group. Right, if you
don't feel like you can trust yourmedical provider to give you the adequate care,
you may just not go. Andthat that's a scary place to be
no matter who you are, youknow, whether you're an undocumented person or
a member of the LGBTQ community.Yeah, well, and then you know,
(10:24):
and then dial that back and thinkabout intersectionality. Right, So what
if I am a brown, undocumentedqueer person, Right, you know,
I've got I've got patients in myprogram that immigrated here from Central America because
they were trans, So they're youknow, migratory undocumented, brown trans person
(10:52):
and you know, I have towork very hard to create a safe space
for them to come in and seekcare and do a lot of consulting with
our providers to make sure that thosepeople feel safe so that they can keep
coming back and get their kit.Absolutely absolutely, How does DAP health play
that role in bridging that gap betweenthe lack of accessible healthcare here in the
(11:16):
IE and really all the education thatgoes along with it. All of our
social service programs specifically, you know, for me, it's our Gender Health
and Wellness program, right, butthe rest of our social programs we do
to keep engaging with the community toeducate not only our patients but the rest
(11:37):
of the community. Internally, wework very hard on keeping all of our
providers educated and up to date onsome of the newest language and newest terminologies,
so that we're not just educating ourpatients, our community, but also
our clinicians and our internal staff sothat we can and keep DAP and DAP's
(12:03):
clinics feeling like the safest place possibleto come in and seek your care.
Yeah, and it feels like ifyou see people who look like you as
well, it does make a changein their demeanor as well. I mean
they come in and they get greetedby someone like you, who is them,
who is in the community that they'reyou know that they need the access
(12:26):
oh one percent. I I actuallyhad a conversation with somebody the other day
that was coming in and said,Hey, you know, I come back
a lot of times because you looklike me, you sound like me.
You know this is a podcast,so you can't tell. But I do
(12:46):
not cover my tattoos at work.I have lots of tattoos. And part
of that is so that I havenoticed that I have patients that come in
and they will open up to memore because I look like and I found
like them. Yeah, that iskey. What resources are immediately available to
those who might be struggling with theirown identity now and maybe need a friendly
(13:09):
face now. There are a varietyof groups, whether in person or online
like zoom type groups that are hostedby different groups around the IE. Up
in the Riverside in San Bernardino,there's the Rainbow Pride Youth Alliance. Out
(13:30):
in the Desert, there's the LGBTCenter of the Desert, there's trans Health
and Wellness Center that all hosts differentgroups for people to get together and just
share space together. I think oneof the historical things with the community in
the past was a lot of thekind of social gathering stuff happened at bars,
(13:54):
and in the last five to sixyears there's been a real big push
of more community based social inter interaction, not in the bar scene, and
that has been fantastic, but peoplethat are struggling with their identity or just
(14:16):
need to social support are finding itat these places. We are ramping up
now that we're kind of finally alltogether with DAP and all of our clinics.
We're going to start hosting some smallgroups for our program. Our Community
(14:37):
Health at uh DAP and Palm Springshost several different things at our Community Wellness
Center there's a lot of things outthere. There needs to be more,
but there always needs to be more. How does someone like me get involved
with the l g b t QA plus causes or somebody that is listening
(14:58):
right now, what could they youto be an advocate for you? Ooh,
I love this question. I getthis often, and I pause because
my biggest answer is, prepare tobe uncomfortable. Prepare to educate yourself and
(15:22):
not ask people from the LGBTQ community. Don't ask gender and sexuality minorities to
educate you. Be prepared to lookinternally at your own biases and be ready
to acknowledge that you know you've hadcertain thoughts about certain groups of people and
(15:46):
you need to change those so thatyou can actually dive in and help.
Right. But that's how you helpfirst is being able to stand up when
you see transphobia and homophobia and actsof discrimination. But you can't see those
unless you look internally first. SoI think my first thing is be ready
(16:07):
to be uncomfortable and figure out yourown self. Right. And number two,
ally, the word ally is averb. It's not a noun.
It's a verb. When we useit in this context, you have to
be working. You can't just sayhey, I'm an ally. You have
to do stuff. You have tospeak up when you see acts of harm,
(16:29):
speak up when you see somebody misgender, somebody correct the other person,
don't make these people in our marginalizedcommunities have to do all the work for
themselves. And you see that acrosslots of communities, right, But I
think that's it. Allyship's a verb. I like that, and I've never
(16:49):
thought of it that way. Butyou're absolutely right. You can say it,
Sure you can say it, butif you're not doing it, if
you're not showing or doing it,then what is what is being an ally?
That's that's really that's really great.I love that you said that.
Really well. Where I Before wego, and we don't have to go
unless you have plenty more. Wecan talk about this for all day if
(17:10):
you want to, But before wego, what are some key takeaways?
I want three key takeaways you hopethat our listeners get from this conversation today.
Three three. I know there's somany, and I even wrote down
a few that I was like,oh, that's a good takeaway. Oh
this is a good takeaway. Thatthere are a lot of queer people all
(17:34):
over southern California that are desperately inneed of healthcare. And honestly, you
know, i EhP has been ahuge advocate helping us provide this care.
They make it really easy to partnerwith them in their case management team.
(17:56):
But it's not enough. And sooutreach out reach out. And I think
you know, if you want tobe an ally, if you say you're
going to be an ally, dothe work there. It is allyship su
verb. Right. So that's twotakeaways. I don't know about the third
one. You know, show upand show out right. I like that.
(18:18):
I like the prepare to be uncomfortabletoo, you know, if you
want to be something, be aboutit. It really is. But I
think there it's all kind of thesame thing, right, It's like you
have to prepare to be uncomfortable,you know, I you have to be
ready to support and just sit andhold space. Right, Like forty five
percent of trends and non binary peoplein America have stated that they were considering
(18:45):
to move to different states because twentyfive no, yesterday there was another one
past twenty six states have passed lawsagainst gender affirmingkiit. We are getting a
large influx of those people in theIE and in San Diego County because the
rural areas are more affordable and moreon par of some of these states where
(19:07):
people are moving from. So weneed to be ready to make safe space
for people to come here from otherplaces seeking safe places to get their healthcare.
I love that. Make safe spacefor our community, make safe spaces
for these people who need you,who need a community to rally around them.
(19:29):
So I mean that's you know,statistics are frightening, but at the
end of the day, we areworking hard on our end to make community
safe, but we need help fromour allies. Right, And then that
rolls back to don't say you're anally unless you're ready to make yourself uncomfortable
and do the work and not makeLGBTQ people do all the work and do
(19:56):
and educate you, educate yourself orreach out to those of us like myself
that say, hey, look,come to me, let me educate you,
ask me the hard questions so thatthese other people in my community don't
need to do the labor. Yeah. I like that too. That makes
perfect sense to me because I wasgoing to say, sometimes you feel like
you need to ask the question,but you don't know who to ask.
(20:18):
You know, I want to knowmore about this, but I actually don't
feel like I'm getting the true answersonline or googling it. So going to
an organization like DAP health, you'regoing to get those answers and you're going
to get fact and you're going toget what you need. Yeah, there's
a lot of us that do thiswork that say repeatedly, come to me,
(20:40):
ask me the questions. Ask meany question you have, I will
answer it so that you don't haveto ask somebody that's a little more vulnerable.
Right, this is my job.My job is to help educate people
so that we can all together createthese safe spaces for everyone. Really,
Oh my gosh, so so wellput. I really appreciate you being here
(21:03):
with me today and joining us.I have one last question for you.
How are you celebrating pride? Well, first of all, I celebrate pride
year round. Good. I likethat answer, And you know, a
big piece of that was, youknow, I finally, in my late
forties decided that I needed to packup and leave the South. That was
(21:25):
a big celebration moment, I imagine. Yeah, Oh, it completely was.
You know, I work a lotduring Pride season. Right I go
out, I'm doing outreach and I'mtrying to show people how we can bring
them better healthcare and good health careand things that they can do to make
themselves safer, which I love becauseI get to go to all of these
(21:51):
different festivals. Starting on June first, I'm going to be at Pride by
the Beach in Oceanside, California,which is one of the few dry Pride
in Southern California, so there's alot of young people and families that come
out to it. I'll be atSan Diego Pride in late July and then
see, for me, Pride goesall the way to November at Palm Springspread
(22:15):
and then you know, Riverside Prideis in the fall. So for me,
Pride is year round, and it'sa celebration that I'm still here and
that I'm still alive because I neverthought I was going to make it past
twenty five, you know, growingup in the South, I didn't think.
So I think one of my favoritethings this year is I'm going to
(22:36):
be able to be back in Atlantafor Atlanta Pride in October and celebrating it
with my two children, who areboth young adults and are very out in
the community. So family affair.I love that wonderful Well, Thank you
so much, Amita I. Thishas been a very informative conversation and I
(22:56):
know that there's so much more toeven dive into, but you've been such
a joy. Thank you very muchfor joining me today. Thanks. If
you'd never meet anything else reach out, I will absolutely thank you and have
happy Pride month. Thanks a lot. Well, that was very informative,
very inspiring me to Beach Director ofGender Health and Wellness at DAP Health.
(23:19):
Remember your well being matters, andtaking proactive steps toward better health is essential
no matter who you are. It'sa right, whether it's staying physically active,
or prioritizing mental wellness or advocating forinclusive healthcare. We're all in this
journey together. Ally is a verb, stay well, stay informed, and
(23:44):
keep covering your health.
Welcome to Covering Your Health, awellness podcast dedicated to covering all areas of
living a healthy and happy lifestyle,from healthy hearts to understanding health plans and
everything in between. Each episode willprovide you with a better understanding of managing
your health, preventative care, andstaying on the right path for your family's
wellness journey. The Covering Your Healthpodcast is presented by i EhP. Now
(00:26):
your host Kevilina Revez. Well,Hello there, welcome back to another episode
of Covering your Health. Oh,it's going to be wonderful. I hope
you're finding yourself in a great spaceright now. This episode is very special
because it is coming out three daysinto the start of Pride Month. That
(00:49):
is right every June, we turnthe spotlight on our friends from the lgbt
QIA plus community by uplifting their voices, culture, achievements, and activism through
events planned throughout the month, includingright here in our own backyard of the
Inland Empire. Today, we arewelcomed by Meda Beach, the Director of
(01:11):
Gender Health and Wellness at DAP Health, a Coachella Valley based healthcare organization serving
more than eighty five thousand patients annuallyat twenty six fixed locations and eight mobile
units across two hundred and forty urbanand rule zip codes in Riverside and San
Diego Counties. MEDA who uses thepronouns. They then will speak about their
(01:37):
work with DAP Health and how Iwas mispronouncing it you'll see in a bit,
and how their own personal trans journeyempowers them to continue the fight toward
equitable access to healthcare for all.Welcome, Meda. How are you?
I'm great? How are you?I am wonderful. I'm so excited to
(01:57):
have you here. Pride mon ishere, baby, and we are excited
about it. Yay. Well,first, before we get going, I
want to ask a little bit aboutyourself. Me to tell me how you
began your career in healthcare. Howwas this pathway for you found? So
it started out early with my activism. I spent twenty years in corporate and
(02:25):
all during that I needed to servemy community. So I started as a
sexuality educator and a sex educator inthe community. And then when COVID hit
and there were corporate layoffs, Idecided to pivot and switch my career to
healthcare and serving my community. Wow. You know, I find that a
(02:49):
lot of people. Pivot was thatbig word, right, we all were
using it during COVID time. Everyonehad to do that in some sort of
way. And I find that alot of people found their new path during
that time. So there's a little, a little glimmer of light that actually
came from that dark time for somany of us. Yeah, okay,
well tell me, let's get let'sget going. Tell me how your own
(03:10):
personal experience played into the work thatyou do now with DAP health. Well,
so, I was a young personcoming to age in the early nineties,
and I saw a bunch of myelders passing away from HIV related illnesses.
(03:31):
And I was a queer kid inthe Deep South, and it was
hard, and you know, strugglingwith my own sexuality and gender identity.
You know, we didn't have languagearound being non binary really in the nineties.
But you know, one of theexamples I give people is I changed
(03:52):
my name because my name felt toomasculine, so I changed it, but
I didn't know why, right,Okay, for year, right, So
then you know, it was likecoming out as queer and then coming out
as non binary over like the nexttwenty years slowly led me to want to
speak to it, to other peopleand help people find access of care because
(04:16):
I've had problems finding access of careand I am I'm loud. I like
that, right, So when Iwhen I find problems, I speak up
because I'm loud, yes, andI'm stubborns. So I have struggled my
entire life trying to find effective primaryhealth care, effective sexual health care,
(04:45):
effective gender health care, to thepoint when COVID happened and I lost my
corporate job, I sold my houseand moved to California because I wanted to
find better, better health care formyself my partner. So that led me
to want to do this work.Right. How did you find DAP Health.
(05:06):
I moved to Palm Springs in themiddle of twenty twenty, and I
knew I wanted to work for aneed service organization or an LGBT health organization.
And I actually found DAP and whenthey were still a Desert AIDS project,
(05:27):
and applied for four or five jobsand never got a call back.
So I worked in some drug andalcohol rehab centers. I started working for
Barrego Health and their transgender diverse programand then was part of the acquisition when
DAP purchased Barrego Health last year.I see, I see now, am
(05:48):
I saying it wrong? Am Isaying DAP health when it should be DAP.
Yeah, it's DAP, Okay,I will change it from now on.
I am so sorry. I wasjust thinking that's what it was.
See ignorance. Sometimes that's why weask questions. So it's DAP Health because
we're trying to keep the legacy ofDesert AIDS project as we move forward to
(06:09):
being a full FQHC in supporting theentire community. I see, I totally
get it. Well, Now,tell me about what your community faces.
What are some of the biggest challengesthe health challenges specifically facing the LGBTQIA plus
community. So it's varying, right, So for me specifically with my program,
(06:32):
it's limited access to gender affirming care. Trans and gender diverse people have
encountered challenges accessing care for years,especially you know, hormone therapy, post
operative pre operative care, urgent caresettings specifically in the IE in in San
(06:53):
Diego County. We have problems becausewe have such rural areas and such a
limited access of providers. Providing thiscare, and then if we want to
drill that down even more to medicaland cover to California plans. You know,
there's some regulations about who you cansee and gender affirming care isn't a
(07:15):
specialty, so you have to getthat from your primary care and there's a
lack of education to those providers.But you know, when we stretch out
to the community as a whole,there's a lack of comprehensive sexual health and
wellness providers and providers that are fullyeducated and comfortable having these conversations. There
(07:44):
many many healthcare providers feel uncomfortable askingLGBTQ patients about their sexual practices due to
you know, insufficient training, personalbiases, fear of a sending or alienating
their patients. Right, So thisdiscomfort, I mean really it's a lack
(08:07):
of familiarity, right with different sexualpractices, different identities. And because of
that, the LGBTQ community from theirprimary care is having, you know,
a hard time getting basic sexual healthcoverage because you know, there's not these
(08:30):
open discussions happening with their providers,so they're not actually getting information about you
know, we have these medications thatcan stop you from contracting HIV. You
know, they're well tolerated medications thatcome in several different forms. Right,
we have a medication that, iftaken after a kind of less sexual encounter,
(08:54):
can help prevent you from catching certainSTIs. These conversations aren't happening because
providers aren't trained or comfortable having theseconversations. I think that the next big
one is discrimination and harassment of patientsbased on you know, provider or the
(09:18):
staff's biases on sexual orientation, genderidentity, gender expression. And this can
lead to people from the LGBTQ communitynot seeking treatment because they don't want to
have to deal with, you know, going into the er or going into
(09:41):
the urgent care and feeling like they'renot in a safe place, or feeling
like they're not being respected based onyou know, gender or sexuality. I
feel like this is a running sortof I don't know topic throughout all of
the podcast episodes that we done.It's a lack of trust. There seems
(10:03):
to be a lack of trust dependingon the group. Right, if you
don't feel like you can trust yourmedical provider to give you the adequate care,
you may just not go. Andthat that's a scary place to be
no matter who you are, youknow, whether you're an undocumented person or
a member of the LGBTQ community.Yeah, well, and then you know,
(10:24):
and then dial that back and thinkabout intersectionality. Right, So what
if I am a brown, undocumentedqueer person, Right, you know,
I've got I've got patients in myprogram that immigrated here from Central America because
they were trans, So they're youknow, migratory undocumented, brown trans person
(10:52):
and you know, I have towork very hard to create a safe space
for them to come in and seekcare and do a lot of consulting with
our providers to make sure that thosepeople feel safe so that they can keep
coming back and get their kit.Absolutely absolutely, How does DAP health play
that role in bridging that gap betweenthe lack of accessible healthcare here in the
(11:16):
IE and really all the education thatgoes along with it. All of our
social service programs specifically, you know, for me, it's our Gender Health
and Wellness program, right, butthe rest of our social programs we do
to keep engaging with the community toeducate not only our patients but the rest
(11:37):
of the community. Internally, wework very hard on keeping all of our
providers educated and up to date onsome of the newest language and newest terminologies,
so that we're not just educating ourpatients, our community, but also
our clinicians and our internal staff sothat we can and keep DAP and DAP's
(12:03):
clinics feeling like the safest place possibleto come in and seek your care.
Yeah, and it feels like ifyou see people who look like you as
well, it does make a changein their demeanor as well. I mean
they come in and they get greetedby someone like you, who is them,
who is in the community that they'reyou know that they need the access
(12:26):
oh one percent. I I actuallyhad a conversation with somebody the other day
that was coming in and said,Hey, you know, I come back
a lot of times because you looklike me, you sound like me.
You know this is a podcast,so you can't tell. But I do
(12:46):
not cover my tattoos at work.I have lots of tattoos. And part
of that is so that I havenoticed that I have patients that come in
and they will open up to memore because I look like and I found
like them. Yeah, that iskey. What resources are immediately available to
those who might be struggling with theirown identity now and maybe need a friendly
(13:09):
face now. There are a varietyof groups, whether in person or online
like zoom type groups that are hostedby different groups around the IE. Up
in the Riverside in San Bernardino,there's the Rainbow Pride Youth Alliance. Out
(13:30):
in the Desert, there's the LGBTCenter of the Desert, there's trans Health
and Wellness Center that all hosts differentgroups for people to get together and just
share space together. I think oneof the historical things with the community in
the past was a lot of thekind of social gathering stuff happened at bars,
(13:54):
and in the last five to sixyears there's been a real big push
of more community based social inter interaction, not in the bar scene, and
that has been fantastic, but peoplethat are struggling with their identity or just
(14:16):
need to social support are finding itat these places. We are ramping up
now that we're kind of finally alltogether with DAP and all of our clinics.
We're going to start hosting some smallgroups for our program. Our Community
(14:37):
Health at uh DAP and Palm Springshost several different things at our Community Wellness
Center there's a lot of things outthere. There needs to be more,
but there always needs to be more. How does someone like me get involved
with the l g b t QA plus causes or somebody that is listening
(14:58):
right now, what could they youto be an advocate for you? Ooh,
I love this question. I getthis often, and I pause because
my biggest answer is, prepare tobe uncomfortable. Prepare to educate yourself and
(15:22):
not ask people from the LGBTQ community. Don't ask gender and sexuality minorities to
educate you. Be prepared to lookinternally at your own biases and be ready
to acknowledge that you know you've hadcertain thoughts about certain groups of people and
(15:46):
you need to change those so thatyou can actually dive in and help.
Right. But that's how you helpfirst is being able to stand up when
you see transphobia and homophobia and actsof discrimination. But you can't see those
unless you look internally first. SoI think my first thing is be ready
(16:07):
to be uncomfortable and figure out yourown self. Right. And number two,
ally, the word ally is averb. It's not a noun.
It's a verb. When we useit in this context, you have to
be working. You can't just sayhey, I'm an ally. You have
to do stuff. You have tospeak up when you see acts of harm,
(16:29):
speak up when you see somebody misgender, somebody correct the other person,
don't make these people in our marginalizedcommunities have to do all the work for
themselves. And you see that acrosslots of communities, right, But I
think that's it. Allyship's a verb. I like that, and I've never
(16:49):
thought of it that way. Butyou're absolutely right. You can say it,
Sure you can say it, butif you're not doing it, if
you're not showing or doing it,then what is what is being an ally?
That's that's really that's really great.I love that you said that.
Really well. Where I Before wego, and we don't have to go
unless you have plenty more. Wecan talk about this for all day if
(17:10):
you want to, But before wego, what are some key takeaways?
I want three key takeaways you hopethat our listeners get from this conversation today.
Three three. I know there's somany, and I even wrote down
a few that I was like,oh, that's a good takeaway. Oh
this is a good takeaway. Thatthere are a lot of queer people all
(17:34):
over southern California that are desperately inneed of healthcare. And honestly, you
know, i EhP has been ahuge advocate helping us provide this care.
They make it really easy to partnerwith them in their case management team.
(17:56):
But it's not enough. And sooutreach out reach out. And I think
you know, if you want tobe an ally, if you say you're
going to be an ally, dothe work there. It is allyship su
verb. Right. So that's twotakeaways. I don't know about the third
one. You know, show upand show out right. I like that.
(18:18):
I like the prepare to be uncomfortabletoo, you know, if you
want to be something, be aboutit. It really is. But I
think there it's all kind of thesame thing, right, It's like you
have to prepare to be uncomfortable,you know, I you have to be
ready to support and just sit andhold space. Right, Like forty five
percent of trends and non binary peoplein America have stated that they were considering
(18:45):
to move to different states because twentyfive no, yesterday there was another one
past twenty six states have passed lawsagainst gender affirmingkiit. We are getting a
large influx of those people in theIE and in San Diego County because the
rural areas are more affordable and moreon par of some of these states where
(19:07):
people are moving from. So weneed to be ready to make safe space
for people to come here from otherplaces seeking safe places to get their healthcare.
I love that. Make safe spacefor our community, make safe spaces
for these people who need you,who need a community to rally around them.
(19:29):
So I mean that's you know,statistics are frightening, but at the
end of the day, we areworking hard on our end to make community
safe, but we need help fromour allies. Right, And then that
rolls back to don't say you're anally unless you're ready to make yourself uncomfortable
and do the work and not makeLGBTQ people do all the work and do
(19:56):
and educate you, educate yourself orreach out to those of us like myself
that say, hey, look,come to me, let me educate you,
ask me the hard questions so thatthese other people in my community don't
need to do the labor. Yeah. I like that too. That makes
perfect sense to me because I wasgoing to say, sometimes you feel like
you need to ask the question,but you don't know who to ask.
(20:18):
You know, I want to knowmore about this, but I actually don't
feel like I'm getting the true answersonline or googling it. So going to
an organization like DAP health, you'regoing to get those answers and you're going
to get fact and you're going toget what you need. Yeah, there's
a lot of us that do thiswork that say repeatedly, come to me,
(20:40):
ask me the questions. Ask meany question you have, I will
answer it so that you don't haveto ask somebody that's a little more vulnerable.
Right, this is my job.My job is to help educate people
so that we can all together createthese safe spaces for everyone. Really,
Oh my gosh, so so wellput. I really appreciate you being here
(21:03):
with me today and joining us.I have one last question for you.
How are you celebrating pride? Well, first of all, I celebrate pride
year round. Good. I likethat answer, And you know, a
big piece of that was, youknow, I finally, in my late
forties decided that I needed to packup and leave the South. That was
(21:25):
a big celebration moment, I imagine. Yeah, Oh, it completely was.
You know, I work a lotduring Pride season. Right I go
out, I'm doing outreach and I'mtrying to show people how we can bring
them better healthcare and good health careand things that they can do to make
themselves safer, which I love becauseI get to go to all of these
(21:51):
different festivals. Starting on June first, I'm going to be at Pride by
the Beach in Oceanside, California,which is one of the few dry Pride
in Southern California, so there's alot of young people and families that come
out to it. I'll be atSan Diego Pride in late July and then
see, for me, Pride goesall the way to November at Palm Springspread
(22:15):
and then you know, Riverside Prideis in the fall. So for me,
Pride is year round, and it'sa celebration that I'm still here and
that I'm still alive because I neverthought I was going to make it past
twenty five, you know, growingup in the South, I didn't think.
So I think one of my favoritethings this year is I'm going to
(22:36):
be able to be back in Atlantafor Atlanta Pride in October and celebrating it
with my two children, who areboth young adults and are very out in
the community. So family affair.I love that wonderful Well, Thank you
so much, Amita I. Thishas been a very informative conversation and I
(22:56):
know that there's so much more toeven dive into, but you've been such
a joy. Thank you very muchfor joining me today. Thanks. If
you'd never meet anything else reach out, I will absolutely thank you and have
happy Pride month. Thanks a lot. Well, that was very informative,
very inspiring me to Beach Director ofGender Health and Wellness at DAP Health.
(23:19):
Remember your well being matters, andtaking proactive steps toward better health is essential
no matter who you are. It'sa right, whether it's staying physically active,
or prioritizing mental wellness or advocating forinclusive healthcare. We're all in this
journey together. Ally is a verb, stay well, stay informed, and
(23:44):
keep covering your health.
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