“They feel more connected because I’m part of the community,” Meyer said. Some were at the beginning of their journeys as transgender women, she said, and they felt comfortable with her as a provider, believing she understood their needs and could communicate well with them. They were living together as a family, and, one by one, each came to see Meyer at the Aurora clinic where she practices. (Rachel Woolf for KHN)Īfter telling a transgender patient that she is a lesbian, Meyer learned the woman had recently taken four other trans women, all estranged from their birth families, under her wing. “They feel more connected because I’m part of the community,” Meyer says. LGBTQ+ patients often deal with stigma in health settings.
Shaunti Meyer, medical director at the STRIDE Community Health Center in Aurora, Colorado, discloses her sexual orientation to patients when it feels appropriate.
