How a Health Care Directory is Connecting LGBTQ+ Communities to More Services

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For nonprofits and health workers serving the LGBTQ+ community, finding ways to provide inclusive and affirming services in 2025 can be difficult. A growing list of Trump administration actions are affecting the health of LGBTQ+ people, making it harder to find care and adding to the unfair treatment and discrimination they often face at disproportionate rates.

To learn more about the ways health care workers can better stay up to date on reliable resources and information, PGN talked with Alex Sheldon, who leads GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality.

They shared insights about GLMA’s LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory and why it’s important for health care workers to stay curious. 

Here’s more of what they said.

[Editor’s note: The contents of this interview have been edited for length and clarity.]

PGN: When did GLMA get its start?

Alex Sheldon: We are the oldest and largest association of LGBTQ+ and allied health professionals. Our membership really comes together to advance LGBTQ+ health equity in research, education, and in advocacy and policy change.

Our organization was founded in the early 80s in response to the onset of what would become the HIV and AIDS epidemic, the unique position that LGBTQ+ physicians were in at the time, and their ability to respond to government inaction and erasure of our community’s experiences. We’ve really carried that legacy with us since then to advocate for the health and livelihoods of our community in times where we are either under attack, ignored, or simply just not understood.

PGN: Can you tell us more about your organization’s health care directory? Who is it for?

A.S.: The story of the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory started many years ago. It actually used to be a public facing database of GLMA’s membership. But we learned that there are many allies who would like to be included.

The goal is to connect LGBTQ+ patients and clients—anyone who’s in search of equitable and inclusive health care—with health professionals who really understand their unique health needs. 

So, we joined forces with the Tegan and Sara Foundation as well as with Cigna to bring life to a new database. Today, the directory includes over 4,000 health professionals across all 50 states as well as the provinces in Canada representing almost every single area of health and behavioral health that you can think of.

The directory is completely free. We also made sure that we had the highest security possible. It’s a completely cookie-free website, so that there is the utmost safety and security for the people who use it. 

That is really crucial in this era where our communities are being criminalized by the federal government and by many state governments and where our data feels particularly vulnerable. 

PGN: From a user’s experience, what were some things your team took into consideration when they designed the directory?

A.S.: We had a keen eye here for an approach that GLMA uses called targeted universalism. That means that if you are able to create a system that works for the most multi-marginalized individuals, then you are going to create a system that works for the vast majority of the population. 

So, it might not work for our entire community if we created a system that was only usable for a cisgender gay white male in New York City. But if we center a Black trans woman in Texas who is disabled and living with HIV, then designing it for that person who is experiencing so many barriers to equitable health care, we create a system that is going to be accessible for the vast majority of the community.

We are making educational opportunities available through the directory as well. 

PGN: Why are educational opportunities important to offer?

A.S.: Our community is known for many things, but one of the beauties of the LGBTQ+ community is that it’s constantly evolving. 

We’re constantly learning more about ourselves. We are constantly understanding and creating new words to describe ourselves and our experiences and identities. 

Health professionals have a duty to keep up with that information. Education is crucial in this space. 

The LGBTQ+ community experiences incredible systemic oppression and barriers to equitable health care. And, unfortunately, the education system that surrounds health professionals and prepares them for their careers doesn’t always include LGBTQ+ health as an important learning component. 

In fact, for the vast majority of physicians, if they receive any LGBTQ+ specific health education, it is often under five hours of their total education. 

And we know physicians stay in school for a very, very long time. To only receive five hours of education is so minuscule, it’s almost laughable. 

So, there are really important gaps to fill in that space. 

PGN: What are some examples of these gaps?

A.S.: We’ve seen spikes in suicidality, depression, anxiety in our community, particularly among our youth, as we’re being targeted. 

But it can happen within a health care setting as well, and that can have a huge impact on someone’s health. 

As part of my work, I get to connect with a lot of LGBTQ+ patients, and what I hear from many people is that even one negative experience in a health care setting—whether that is the physician who misgenders them, or the front desk chat person who accidentally uses the wrong name, or the nurse who makes an assumption about how your partners identify when asking for a sexual history—all of those things can contribute to a negative experience in a health care setting. 

And when that happens, it can result in massive delays or avoidance of care. And when that happens, the results can be, frankly, deadly. We know that preventive medicine is crucial to our overall care.

This article was republished under a Creative Commins 4.0 license