On April 2, 2025, Dr. Holt had the honor of presenting in-person to first and second year medical students at Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The first year session was also streamed live to their Florida campus. These sessions dove into how to make the healthcare setting a safe and welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ patients, including the impact of the waiting room, intake forms, and patient interactions. In addition to discussing what LGBTQ+ patients are at higher risk for, we discussed how to start conversations on sensitive topics, such as sexual health, trans health, coming out, and LGBTQ+ suicide risks.
A robust Q & A session concluded each of the 90 minute sessions.
Written Audience Feedback – Overall Comments / most important thing I learned:
I appreciate Dr. Holt’s story and presentation because I do not know much about LGBTQ+ and how to better help the LGBTQ+ community. As things are changing in politics and these changes bring negative consequences to the LGBTQ+ community, this lecture was eye-opening and helpful for me to understand how I can be an ally to the marginalized community. Thank you Dr. Holt for sharing and talking to our class today.
The personal experiences that Dr. Holt shared really resonated with me. I also think the statistics on how many LGBTQIA+ individuals are experiencing suicidal ideation/attempts, feelings of isolation, homelessness, lack of community, etc. are extremely impactful. I also think showing the percentage of patients who are satisfied after receiving gender-affirming care goes to show how effective these practices are. Lastly, the inclusion of comments from queer youth across the US in rural communities was particularly heartbreaking and an impactful demonstration of tangibility of hate.
Thank you so much for the amazing presentation! I learned that there are so many ways I can create a safe space for my future patients.
I appreciate your efforts in bringing attention to this subject. I was raised by a lesbian couple in a foster home. I have personally witnessed many of the issues that you brought to light today. A lesson in empathy can go a long way for many people, and you have helped so many see this.
I think the biggest takeaway with this talk was in regards to just being mindful of yourself and your patient while providing empathy in your assessment/treatment.
This was a great talk! Your story was very powerful and started sad. I hope to prevent other people from experiencing that.
One of the most important things that I took away from this presentation was making not just yourself a safe space but also the practice you are in a space space too. It hadn’t crossed my mind prior to today about how the waiting room of a practice could give a misrepresentation or false presentation of whether or not it is a safe place for people of the LGBTQ+ community.
I really really liked the talk today. As someone with friends in the LGBTQ+ community I sometimes take for granted how much I know compared to the general public. I think the talk today did a great job of highlighting the extreme consequences of not respecting and protecting people in the LGBTQ+ community to those who otherwise might not have thought about this issue. I also think it was really important to hear about this topic from a male physician, as the men at this school seem especially uncomfortable talking about any type of sexuality that isn’t cis hetero. This topic is just so important and truly I think this is one of the only talks we’ve had actually highlighting the LGBTQ+ experience, outside of things hosted by the club on campus. Please keep up the amazing work, it really does make a difference!
I enjoyed Dr. Holt’s personal story, his guidelines for creating a safe and welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ patients, and his recommendations for interactions with health care providers. I also appreciated Dr. Holt answering my question, referring me to institutions and resources that provide further information and guidelines on caring for LGBTQ+ patients.
It was an excellent opportunity to learn about how to best approach LGBTQ healthcare and how to advocate for their health. It also applies to scenarios outside of the LGBTQ community.
I learned that healthcare is significantly shaped by the physician that you want to be and the shocking statistics of the LGBTQ+ community.
I loved the personal stories and real-life examples that were shared.
I was astounded with the statistics at the beginning of the lecture regarding trans people and their mental health, living situations, health in general, relative to general population.
Thank you for giving examples of the appropriate things to say to patients that are stuggling with their gender identity.
How to display you’re a welcoming and friendly safe provider.
I am surprised that there are such few resources for bisexual patients.
I appreciated Dr. Holt sharing his story.
How to address different aspects of care for the LGBTQ patients.
Found the comparison between the different experiences faced in rural versus urban settings for the LGBTQ interesting.
…As I listened to your story today, I was reminded once again that I am not alone in this. It’s a powerful realization that many others have walked similar paths, faced similar injustices, and still found ways to reclaim their faith and identity on their own terms. I am also beginning to understand that I do not need to justify my identity as both a Christian and a gay man to anyone. My faith and my identity are not mutually exclusive, and I am allowed to embrace both fully, regardless of what others may think or say. Thank you for sharing your story and helping me see that acceptance begins with myself.
How to approach my future patients and the right way to provide a safe space for my future patients.
I liked the session it was very helpful for learning the increased health and social risk for those part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
I appreciated hearing Dr. Holt’s advice on how to advocate for patients when a colleague or attending is not being inclusive.
I learned how to be a provider to trans and other queer patients in the future. I learned how to nonverbally show that I am a safe provider to the LGBTQ+ community. I also learned how to handle difficult attendings that are harming both my education and my patient’s care in the future as a medical student, resident and attending.
I come from a psychology/social science background so a lot of the topics covered were things discussed in undergrad and when I was writing papers.
LGBTQ+ patients can feel welcomed with small gestures and they can make or break building trust with your patient.
This was a very valuable talk. I learned how to report homophobic behavior from coworkers and even preceptors and how to prioritize patients well beings.
How this talk will influence my future practice:
This talk shows me the power of compassion and empathy that we can provide to our future patients, friends, or family. When Dr. Holt talked about the different steps in how to provide resources that can better help the LGBTQ+ community, it was eye-opening to know that even a neutral-gender bathroom can make a difference.
I really appreciated all of the important tips that physicians can do to ensure they create a safe space for LGBTQ patients- such as thinking about your own waiting room, intake forms, and properly training all staff around you.
I think this talk did a great job preparing me for how to actually discuss with patients and coworkers LGBTQ+ issues. I am a very liberal person and assume that most people can tell I am open and accepting in my personal life, and so have not had much practice actually making clear to others that I am a safe space. The wording Dr. Holt gave us were great examples that I will fully be using. Especially with coworkers, where it is not always common to discuss personal opinions, he gave great examples on how to again make clear that I am a safe space. Also I will be wearing a pin or having a sticker on my badge to show that I stand with the LGBTQ+ community.
I thought that Dr. Holt’s talk was very impactful, particularly because of the personal story that he shared. The most important thing that I learned is that when treating children who are LGBTQ+ is to not force them to talk about something that they are uncomfortable sharing. For example, if they don’t write down their pronouns or gender, the best way to broach that may be to ask why they did not fill that out and ask if they would like to talk about and if not, allow them the space to become more comfortable with you and let them know you are always available to discuss it later if they would like to.
I will always aim to be as inclusive as possible in my practice. The last thing I would ever want as a provider is for a patient to leave my office feeling as though they were not listened to, were not welcomed, or were even not respected. All of those negative feelings lead to an avoidance of all healthcare professionals in the future, and this can be detrimental to a patient’s health. We must all remember that our thoughts become words, those words become actions, and those actions have consequences. For a line of work that is so human-centric, those consequences look like worse health outcomes for your patients; which I certainly hope is the opposite of what any training physician desires.
I now have many more strategies to make patients feel safe in practice.
Provides a wonderful starting point and some resources to reference.
Try to be more aware of the things I may be doing that make me appear unsafe.
To be more receptive to hearing patients’ experiences regarding their sexual orientation/identity.
I hope that this impacts my future practice by reminding me to listen to my patients first and foremost. I need my practice as a whole to be a welcoming and safe place for each of my patients.
Provide tools to make a safe space and things to be aware of.
Always being cognizant of my presentation and how I interact with patient will be at a higher sensitivity than before.
I will be incorporating Dr. Holt’s recommendations into my practice – especially recommendations for creating a safe and welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ patients.
How to approach caring for these patients as well as knowing more about available resources to support them.
This will impact my future practice by practicing how to formulate questions and openness to my patients and making a conscious effort to go to workshops and be informed about LGBTQ+ care.
I intend to be aware of my impact and power as a physician and a community leader. I will work to ensure that my patients feel a welcoming environment from the moment they walk into my clinic to the moment they leave. I aim to educate and support people through their health journey, not scare them away from asking for help.
Remembering to create a welcoming first impression.
I will be much better prepared to care for my future patients who will include patients from the LGBTQ community.
Not too much different, because I always treat people with the same high level of dignity and respect.
In addition to making a safe space for my future patients, I will also be more equipped to deal with patients that have homophobic or transphobic opinions or comments.
This presentation will help me be a more compassionate physician by being more accepting.
This will make me a more culturally competent physician.
I really enjoyed seeing different ways that LGBTQ+ patients can feel more welcomed in clinics and healthcare by making small changes to intake forms and ensuring that the waiting room includes more welcoming material.
This will help me navigate how to treat future LGBTQ+ patients and how to advocate for them.
This talk will most definitely impact my future practice as I plan on going into emergency medicine. This taught me how to handle and assess suicidal patients that present to the ED related to queer identity. Also, how to be a welcoming and inclusive provider in the future.
I really liked the talk about the intake forms and how to present yourself as safe and friendly in a non-verbal manner.
I will try my best to gain the trust of my patients through my actions and improve my ability to provide better care. Everyone should feel safe when receiving care for medical conditions.