For Service Providers

Creating a GLBTT* Inclusive Space

• Use the term partner or partners with clients instead of boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife. This simple shift in language acknowledges your respect for the client regardless of who they have sex with, and how many people they have sex with. It will also  indicate to GLBTT* patients that they can be honest with you about a sexual history that they may otherwise hide from health care practitioners.
• Reflect the language the patient uses. This includes how the client refers to themselves and/or their partner(s). For example, a client may refer to themselves as “queer.” While this may seem to be a derogatory term, some GLBTT* people use it to positively reclaim their identity within an oppressed population.
• Refer to people by their first name (instead of sir, ma’am, Mrs., Miss, etc.). Unless a client requests that you use a title when referring to them, avoid using a title that may incorrectly label someone’s gender, age, and/or marital status. Inform staff of the importance of this as well. You may be the most inclusive practitioner, but if your staff are not using inclusive language, you may be turning away clients who are already less likely to be accessing health care.
• Do not assume anyone’s gender. Whether speaking with a client in person or over the phone, you may be convinced you are dealing with a man who identifies as a woman, or vice versa; you may assume your client is transgender when they are not, or vice versa. The client’s health card cannot be considered an accurate piece of identity, since it often does not reflect the gender of people who are in transition.
• Intake forms should allow for multiple gender options (male, female, transgender/transsexual), and preferred pronouns (he/him, she/her, or others). Ideally, there should be a place to differentiate between a person’s legal name and their preferred or chosen name; transgender people often go by a name that is different from their birth name, and it takes time and money to legally change one’s name.
• Ensure that there is a way to maintain privacy when people are filling out forms. The most equitable intake form is useless if details about a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation is visible to the eyes of a curious neighbour in the waiting room.
• Make sure the administrative process doesn’t lose track of preferred names and gender. Again, an equitable GLBTT* clinic or intake form is pointless if the client’s chosen name gets lost in the shuffle and a practitioner unintentionally refers to the client by the wrong name.
• Make sure all staff know the policies and respectful protocol for transgender clients. What are your policies regarding completed legal identity changes? Documents that don’t match because a patient is in mid-transition? Don’t make a transgender patient stand around attracting unwanted attention to themselves because staff don’t know what to do about a legal name or gender change.
• If staff are using incorrect pronouns for a trans person, will they be aware of the client’s attempts to correct them without needing the client to explain to them what it means to be transgender? For example, if a client corrects staff by saying “I identify as male,” or “I identify as female,” will staff know to switch the pronouns they are using?