Who is the Queer People's Health Collective?

QPHC is a loosely organized group of people charged with working toward improvements in the field of queer and trans health. You needn't be queer or trans to be involved, and you needn't subscribe to any particular ideology, though we expect we all can agree that regardless of identity, class, embodiment, or any other social factor, people deserve (and, where necessary, should demand) culturally-responsive and competent health or wellness care. We don't like being told to choose between our identities to get services or support, so we don't want you to have to do so either. If you feel you might belong in QPHC, you do and we welcome you.

What is the reasoning behind the Queer People's Health Collective?

QPHC strives to be universal in appeal, but queer and trans in focus. This helps us to be allied with the fight for health and wellness for all, but it maintains a tangible focus on queer and trans folks so that its efforts are specific enough to be relevant and easily workable from an activist standpoint. We organize ourselves because it is a matter of our survival. We organize because mainstream health and wellness sources too often ignore or exclude queer and trans realities from their services or support. We organize because as Howard Zinn indicates in his book Justice in Everyday Life, we cannot speak of justice while those among us do not have the most basic of their needs met. We cannot begin to speak of equity or justice while we are falling through the cracks of a system that systematically (and locally) excludes, ignores, or hasn't the knowledge to deal with our lives, our relationships, or our bodies. We cannot wait for healthcare providers to be educated through medical schools about our issues, because changing the overall system takes a great deal of time, and while that time passes, we are ailing or worse...dying.  So we must instead take up own our fight. We must educate ourselves and potential providers about our lives, our relationships, and our bodies and advocate for systemic changes that will result in the respect and dignity of every living being.

How do you know that disparities exist for queer and trans people?

Research exists that speaks to the disparities we face and we have anecdotes. The problem with anecdotes is that they are only taken seriously when in concert with tangible scientific research, and at this time, the research about our community is  very scarce. The research that exists is often disease-specific (i.e. HIV/AIDS) and often addresses gay men more than any other group. While we love and value gay men in this struggle and elsewhere, we believe it is really important to have equitable research.

What does the Queer People's Health Collective do?

We use our website to educate ourselves and others about matters of queer and trans health, general health topics, and the intricacies of our bodies through research articles, testimonials, referrals, and any other means we deem necessary. Our materials explain the basics of various situations to make things less scary, because trust us, we've been there. We also create materials for people to print off and give to their providers about queer and trans issues so that more providers will respect us when we need them to do so the most.

How can I get involved with the Queer People's Health Collective?

Contact Riley for further details at:             healthcollective AT gmail.com