Posted 14 September 2015 - 17:22
Posted 14 September 2015 - 17:22
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There is no place in health care for unhealthy attitudes towards LGBT staff
As a report from LGBT campaigning charity Stonewall reveals that LGBT health and social care staff still experience homophobic bullying and discrimination from colleagues and patients, community nurse Drew Payne calls on nurse leaders to do more to end this shocking practice.
During my first year of nurse training 25 years ago, I ran into a wall of homophobia. I was told by my vocal colleagues, that I only wanted to be a nurse to see naked men and that all gay men deserved to get AIDS. I was also told that I was a danger to children, and that God could heal me and make me ‘normal’. I endured this because it was 1990, and homophobia was what I expected as a gay man.
It is now 2015 and society has changed so much since my nursing student days. We are much more open, and have many legal protections against homophobia. Last year, my partner and I got married, and I thought we had come so far. Then I was brought down to earth with a crash.
In July, Stonewall – the campaigning organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and
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