The Impact of Coming Out on Health and Health Care Access: The Experiences of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Two-Spirit People.

This article investigates the health care access among gay, lesbian, bisexual, and Two-Spirit (glbt-s) people in Canada. Up until recently, little documentation existed on the health needs and experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual and glbt-s people outside the realm of HIV prevention and treatment for gay and bisexual men. As a result, health care practitioners and policy makers know very little either about the global health and well-being of glbt-s people or about how best to develop appropriate and relevant gay-positive health and social services for them. In addition, while gay, lesbian, bisexual and Two-Spirit communities have much anecdotal information and personal experience to thaw upon with respect to health and health care issues facing glbt-s communities, they have little hard data with which to argue for the adaptation of health systems and institutions to better meet their needs. The absence of documentation on the global health needs of glbt-s people can be traced to the historic and current oppression they face within society generally and within health and social service institutions specifically. Because glbt-s people have historically been socially defined within medical terms as mentally ill, the health care system has been one of the primary arenas through which control over theft lives was exerted.