4th annual OUT for Health Summit: Registration Open!

We are excited to announce that the 4th annual OUT for Health Summit will be returning to San Antonio on January 28th, 2017! This year, we have a special guest as our keynote speaker: Dr. Harvey Makadon, MD, FACP of the The Fenway Institute National LGBT Health Education Center.

More information regarding the OUT for Health conference is available through the registration link: https://goo.gl/WN6iP5

If you have any questions about the upcoming conference, please let us know! You can also see our past involvement in OUT for Health conferences: 2014, 2015, 2016.

First General Body Meeting of the Year

Pride had a huge turnout for our first general body meeting of the year! Here are a few pictures of the event. For more info on what was discussed, please visit our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/UTHSCSAPRIDE/

Statement from PRIDE Executive board regarding Orlando

All members of the LGBTQI community are suffering in the face of this past weekend’s tragedy in Orlando. As PRIDE leaders here at UTHSCSA, we extend our deepest condolences to the friends and family of those killed and injured in Florida this past weekend. We share your sorrow; we share your anger; we stand witness to your anguish.

To those members of the UTHSCSA community who may be hurting, wounded or simply feeling at a loss in the face of this most recent act of violence, please know that we are here to support you. We hope that you will not feel alone or isolated in this time of great sadness. There is free counseling available to students through the UTHSCSA Student Counseling Center (http://students.uthscsa.edu/counseling/ and 210-567-2648).

We would also like to invite all who are able to join us June 16 at a Candlelight Vigil held in memory of the Orlando victims:
Crockett Park
1300 N Main Ave
San Antonio, Texas 78212
7 p.m.
https://www.facebook.com/events/958397290949435/

Finally, during this painful time, we offer these words in the hope that they may provide you with some measure of comfort:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Hope will never be silent.” - Harvey Milk

Safe Space Training 4/28

We will be holding our last Safe Space Training of the school year NEXT THURSDAY 4/28 from 12-1pm in Library 2.031. We hope to see many of you there! Please RSVP at the form below if you plan to attend.  http://goo.gl/forms/qUYmozAwAB

Safe Space Training is open to all members of the UTHSCSA community, Faculty included!

3rd Annual OUT for Health Summit

Thank you to UTSW, Texas A&M and TTUHSC for hosting the 3rd annual summit in Dallas, TX this year! The itinerary was filled with pertinent topics on gender and sexual minority health including sessions on LGBT Healthcare 101, "Are you Married," Evolution of HIV/AIDS, Pediatric Transgender Care, "Let's Talk About Sex", and Lesbian Health.

Here are some pictures from the event!








Some of our the attendees from the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.

They had some phenomenal food!

Here's a group picture. Thanks again to UTSW, Texas A&M, and TTUHSC for putting on a great conference, and we look forward to seeing everyone again next year!

Pride Works the Annual Pride Fest!

Pride students set up at the annual San Antonio Pride Festival on July 4th, 2015 to provide both first aid for the festival and to provide general health screenings. Pride students recognized that many festival stations would be providing resources for STI screening and safer sex, therefore student leaders decided to step outside of this realm and address the crucial gap in primary care services that exists for the LGBTQ population. Volunteers demonstrated an interdisciplinary approach to patient care consisting of nursing, medical, physician assistant, and dental student volunteers. 

Over one hundred festival goers stopped by to receive blood pressure and glucose screenings, BMI calculations, dental health education, and relevant counseling on their results. UTHSCSA faculty supervised the student volunteers by verifying and assisting in interpretation of clinical findings. Pride volunteers were so excited to have a direct role in the care of LGBTQ individuals and Pride can't wait to continue its presence at future festivals! 

Pride Presents - Health and Marriage Equality Panel

In honor of the upcoming US Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage, UTHSCSA Pride put together a panel of local experts from different fields to discuss their work and their viewpoints on the current political climate surrounding the decision. Specifically, we asked panelists to discuss the impacts that these rulings could have on LGBT Healthcare.

We assembled an exciting panel comprising of Amy L. Stone, PhD in Sociology and Anthropology from Trinity University, Christopher Hajek, PhD in the Department of Communication at UTSA, Justin P. Nichols, Attorney at Law from the Nichols Law Firm, and Phillip Schnarrs, PhD from the Department of Kinesiology, Health, and Nutrition at UTSA. Due to some unlucky circumstances, Dr. Stone and Dr. Schnarrs were unfortunately unable to make it, but we were still able to have a very interesting conversation with Dr. Hajek and Mr. Nichols.

We better understood the complicated social implications and social pressures involved in same-sex relationships from Dr. Hajek and Mr. Nichols used his legal practice experience to explain some of the practical implications of the ruling, should it be in favor of same-sex marriage. We are so grateful to all of our panelists and we hope to find another excuse to have them back soon!

Transgender Health Panel for the School of Nursing

Continuing a tradition initiated by the previous Pride co-president, Chris Lam, Pride nursing and medical students collaborated to assemble a panel of four individuals to speak on transgender health and experience for the School of Nursing. Pride has been fortunate enough to develop a relationship with the fantastic San Antonio Gender Association (SAGA) and several community members who identify as transgender were generous enough to share their time and their stories.

Close to 70 nursing and medical students attended the event and listened as the panelists shared stories of struggle and triumph relating their personal journey and their experiences within the often undereducated healthcare system. We were humbled by our conversations and they were so gracious to answer all of our questions. We hope to use all of these lessons to provide more competent and compassionate care to our transgender patients. We are so thankful and we can't wait to have them back! 

PRIDE's Research Wins Award at AMSA Convention

Ly Pham, Kiersten Westhart, Fadi Al-Asadi, and Garry Winkler accept the 2015 Advocacy & Grassroots Activism "Best Poster" Award at the AMSA National Convention!

Ly led PRIDE's big research initiative last year with Kiersten working especially close with her (handling massive amounts of data). Of course, collecting around 400 surveys was no easy task and included many PRIDE members!

The other authors on the poster were Jennifer Leet, Eric Gonzales, Leo Benavides, Jack Flores, Elisha Hwang, Pamela Muñoz, Stefan Jensen, Payton Reiter, Christopher Smith, Camille Spears, Olivia Thornton, Corinne Thompson, Gilberto Vazquez, Chris Lam, Peter Guarnero, PhD, and Robert Esterl, MD. Click here to view the poster!

Kiersten Westhart, Garry Winkler, Ly Pham, Fadi Al-Asadi, Chris Lam

 

Safe Space Presented at Statewide PA Conference

We mentioned earlier last year that our former PA-Liaison, Denise Nemeth, would be presenting Safe Space 2.0 at the Texas Academy of Physician Assistants (TAPA) conference with Eric Gonzales, our former VP of PRIDE.

Well, it happened... and for Continuing Medical Education credit, too! Here are some pictures from the event.

Left to Right: Eric Gonzales, Gilbert Vazquez, Denise Nemeth

Even during her clinical rotations, Denise is a trailblazer for LGBT health. We miss you, Denise!

Safe Space in the School of Nursing

Two pieces of big news for the School of Nursing:

First, every current 2nd semester student in the School of Nursing has now gone through Safe Space Training, and it will be staying in the curriculum from here on out! This is a huge accomplishment that Leo Benavides has spearheaded.

Secondly, Leo's article on PRIDE was published in the School of Nursing's Alumni Today: Winter 2015 Edition!

It's been an incredible year for the School of Nursing. Leo, our outgoing VP of Nursing, has truly been a leader. We wish him the best as he finishes his last semester and will miss him dearly!

2015 OUT for Health Summit

The 2nd annual OUT for Health Summit doubled in attendance this year, with more than 160 registrants! The TAGH executive board, chaired by the Dustin Staloch and Will Tyson of UT-Houston, hosted event.  The sessions this year included Child & Adolescent Mental Health in the LGBTQ Community, LGBT & HIV Healthcare Law, HIV/AIDS stigma in the Medical Community and Public, PrEP: HIV Prophylaxis, Transgender Sexual & Reproductive Health, Caring for an Aging LGB, T, and HIV+ Community, and a Residency Program Directors Panel.

And with the generous funding of UTHSCSA Student Government Associations, we were able to bring an interdisciplinary group of nursing student and medical students!

UTHSCSA Attendees

Bottom, L to R: Brian Vasquez, Garry Winkler, Veny Maysonet, Corinne McLeod, Stephen Pun, Chris Lam. 
Top, L to R: Dr. Dana McDowelle, Dr. Haneme Idrizi, Christopher Smith, Camille Spears, Fadi Al-Asadi, Ly Pham, Brenda Villareal, Leo Benavides, Gilbert Vazquez

We also had a chance to relax and network with students across the state at an informal social the evening before the summit.

 

At the research poster section, UTHSCSA presented two posters titled “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health in Medical Education: A Review of the Literature” and “Overview: LGBTQI San Antonio Healthcare Needs Assessment.”

Come out with next year to attend this great event that started here at UTHSCSA!

New Officers and Update on Events

All right, we haven't updated this website in a little while, but we've been around. First, I want to congratulate the next executive board of PRIDE!

Co-President: Camille Spears (c/o 2018, MD)
Co-President: Christopher Smith (c/o 2018, MD)
VP (SOM): Phil Palmer (c/o 2018, MD)
VP (SON): Leo Benavides (c/o 2015, BSN)
Treasurer: Jen Nordhauser (c/o 2018, MD)
Research Chair: Fadi Al-Asadi (c/o 2018, MD)
Events/Communication Chair: Chloe Woodington (c/o 2018, MD)
Secretary: Cassandra Leonardo (c/o 2018, MD)
Fundraising Chair: Olivia Thornton (c/o 2018, MD)
Outreach & Communications Advisor: Chris Lam (c/o 2017, MD)
MSIII Liaison: Gilbert Vazquez (c/o 2017, MD)
MSIV Liaison: Garry Winkler (c/o 2016, MD)
Research Liaison: Ly Pham (c/o 2016, MD)
PA-S Liaison: Jason Vercher (c/o 2016, PA)
Graduate Nursing Liaison: Casey Strong (c/o 2016, NP)
ABSN Liaison: Sarah Nishimuta (c/o 2015, ABSN)
BSN Liaison: Brenda Villareal (c/o 2015, BSN)

A few old faces, but a lot of new ones. They're pumped up and ready to have a great year :)

But here's a recap on the events since our last posting:

Brunch Social (1/10): Jack hosted our 2nd brunch social at his place as our last social event for the old exec board :)

Holiday Party Social (12/5): We had our annual holiday party at our place. It was a great time with lots of good food, drinks, and games!

San Antonio Medicine Magazine: Gilbert was published in Bexar County Medical Society's San Antonio Medicine Magazine for writing about PRIDE! Take a look on page 20: http://www.bcms.org/SAM/2014/SAMDec2014/index.html

General Body Meeting & Halloween Goody Bags (10/31): We had a meeting in the medical school, made goodie bags for kids, and passed them out to pediatric patients at the University Health System Hospital. A shout out to Gilbert for this great idea!

RainBOO 5k Fun Run & Walk (10/19): Gilbert organized a volunteer event with SA Pride. We staffed their First Aid booth again for the 2nd year in a row.



I wish we took some good pictures, but if you missed out on anything, we mainly let people know about our events through our Facebook page, and we also have an e-mail list (just shoot us an e-mail with yours and we'll put you on!)

Safe Space presentation at the School of Nursing

Today, Leo Benavides, a third semester student in the BSN program and PRIDE's lead nursing liaison, organized the largest single Safe Space session seen on campus. The educational event was held at the School of Nursing with approximately 60 participants, which included both students and faculty of different disciplines. 

Presenting with Eric Gonzales, Leo did an incredible job organizing the event so that it ran smoothly. It was no easy task to manage the presentation and the 12 breakout group discussions that came along with the unprecedented number of attendees. PRIDE would like to extend a special thanks to the 10 additional students who volunteered to facilitate small group case discussions: Brenda Villareal, Gilbert Vazquez, Jennifer Leet, Christopher Lam, John (Jack) Flores, Elisha Hwang, Kiersten Westhart, John (Philip) Palmer, Dustin Green, and Shaoli Chaudhuri. 

With Leo's hard work, PRIDE is more than ever becoming a student organization truly inclusive of other health disciplines. We are very excited to continue fostering the relationships between the School of Nursing, School of Medicine, and Department of Physician Assistant Studies. We also hope to reach out to other departments with talented individuals such as Leo. 

Leo Benavides, 3rd semester student in the BSN program

Dr. Peter Guarnero, co-faculty adviser of PRIDE, addressing the audience

Thank you for coming everyone, and we hope to see you at our clinician-focused presentation in the spring, "Safe Space 2.0: A clinician's guide to LGBTQ health"!

San Antonio Run & Walk for AIDS

UTHSCSA PRIDE participated in the San Antonio AIDS Foundation's Run & Walk for AIDS this past Saturday. The 5k run and 2 mile walk began and ended at the Blue Star Complex in the King William District. The annual event promotes awareness and generates funds that allow the San Antonio AIDS Foundation continue its pursuit of providing compassionate medical care and social services to people with HIV/AIDS and to help prevent the spread of HIV through education and free HIV testing.

We also had a relaxing after social hosted by Dr. Taylor, the faculty advisor of the Infectious Diseases Interest Group on campus where we got to know the staff from the FFACTS clinic at the Robert B. Green Campus.

It was a great day!

Safe Space 2.0 to be presented statewide at TAPA!

Every year, the Texas Academy of Physician Assistants (TAPA) holds a major CME conference for its members in major Texas metropolitan areas. UTHSCSA PRIDE is excited to announce that its very own Denise Nemeth and Eric Jay Gonzales will be presenting their newly-developed Safe Space Training 2.0 at the 40th Annual Spring CME Conference! Congratulations to both of them!!

The conference takes on February 19-22, 2015 at the Sheraton Hotel in Dallas, TX. Denise and Eric will present their Safe Space 2.0 on February 21st from 1:45-2:45PM.

We are very excited to educate and train more PA students than ever before in PRIDE history.

Screening of "The Normal Heart" at Jack's House

On Thursday night, PRIDE in partnership with Physicians for Human Rights held a home viewing of "The Normal Heart" (2014), the play-adapted Emmy Award-winning HBO special on the rise of the HIV/AIDS crisis among the gay activist community in New York City during the early 1980's. The storyline gives a glimpse of the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a country in denial. Thanks to everyone who came!

Upcoming PRIDE Events

PRIDE Monthly Meeting – September 19, 12pm-1pm. SON building – NSG 1.102

Come stop by for our monthly September general meeting for FREE LUNCH and see all the wonderful things that PRIDE is doing this Fall!!
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 Safe Space Training – September 17th, 12pm-1pm. MD Labs 2.029

1-hr training designed to increase knowledge and awareness of the LGBTQ community and the unique disparities they encounter. Attendees will develop social and cultural competencies that will allow them to support LGBTQ individuals and address the inequities they experience.
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SAAF Run & Walk for AIDS – Saturday, September 27th. Blue Star Complex in the King William District

Come help raise funds for HIV/AIDS research with the San Antonio Aids Foundation (SAAF) and stay active in this wonderful event! We have already created a team: ‘UTHSCSA PRIDE’ that you can register under and the cost is $30/$35 for walkers/runners. Website is www.runwalkaids.org. Also there will be a social event immediately following the race for those who sign up at Dr. Barbara Taylor’s house. PLEASE RSVP ASAP IF YOU WANT TO GO TO THE SOCIAL****** Contact floresjm@uthscsa.edu for further information

- Jack Flores, Communications Chair

UTHSCSA Safe Space Training

UTHSCSA PRIDE held its first Safe Space training seminar of the semester today, led by Vice President Ericjay Gonzales! The Safe Space program is a one-hour training designed to increase knowledge and awareness of the LGBTQ community and the unique health disparities they encounter. Attendees ranged from students to faculty and were given the opportunity to develop social and cultural competencies that will allow them to support LGBTQ individuals and address the inequalities they experience. Below are a few pictures of the training:

Dr. Esterl's Eccentric and Aquatic Extravaganza

Dr. Esterl was kind enough to invite UTHSCSA PRIDE to his home for a pool party this past Saturday! The house and the pool were beautiful and provided a much needed break from the Texas heat. Thank you so much Dr. Esterl for opening your home to us! We had so much fun!