Jordan
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I read an interesting article today about an outreach van that receives Title X funding to help prevent unwanted pregnancies (bisexual and even lesbian women have high pregnancy rates, at 10.6% and 7.3% respectively).
But that's not all they do!
Callen-Lorde, located at 356 W. 18th St., has its roots in a pair of LGBT clinics that date back to 1969, and is currently the only LGBT health center in the city. The HOTT program dates back to 1989 and provides a wide range of services for LGBT adolescents, including general medical care, primary HIV care, special care for transgender patients, psychiatry, mental health counseling, dental services, health education and family planning
Furthermore:
HOTT sees more than 700 patients and has 2,500 patient visits annually. A considerable amount of their work happens not in their small second-floor office, but in their outreach van. Twice a week, the HOTT van travels to youth emergency drop-in centers and locations popular among LGBT teens providing on-site medical care, counseling, prescriptions and referrals. HOTT has done outreach work near the Christopher St. Pier, although the van also spends time Uptown and in Queens.
For many of the teens who connect with the outreach van, HOTT represents their only access to medical attention. Due to frequently intolerant family members and foster and group homes that are often unfriendly environments, a disproportionate percentage — 40 percent — of homeless youth in New York City are LGBT. The result, as Christian put it, is “They just don’t have the opportunity to seek medical care.”
I believe that this is a great program that needs to be replicated everywhere. New York City LGBTIQ teens are very lucky to have services such as this, however, many in different areas unfortunately are not so lucky.
I hope that one day, we will have not only a universal healthcare system, but one that services the needs of the LGBTIQ community. But for now, the HOTT van keeps driving on, and it would be heartening to see a single-payer system as well as non-governmental solutions to these issues.
-Jordan Gwendolyn
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