Sexual Identity in Medicine: My Life’s Journey
On February 24, Dr. Holt had the pleasure of presenting to pre-professional healthcare students who are historically underrepresented in the medical field. His storytelling session focused on the intersection of authenticity, advocacy, and the practice of medicine. The theme was turning adversity into an asset for others to learn and grow from.
Overall comments/Impact of session:
Overall theme regarding being authentic was very valuable; people who have experienced hardship can do a great deal to help others, but they need to be able to heal themselves before they can give their all to their patients. Q & A session was enlightening and much appreciated. Your experience as both a clinician and an LGBTQ+ person added a lot to your perspective. It gave me some concrete aspects of healthcare that I may be able to influence when I practice in the future. It has given me a bit to think about in terms of what I wanted or should do to live authentically and lead an fulfilling and worthwhile life.
What an amazing and empowering story. I know having fear with coming out to parents is never easy. Thank you so much for sharing. This talk helped me feel seen with myself and my sexuality. A lot of what Dr. Holt said is really what I needed to hear since I’m coming out as a lesbian.
Thank you! Everything you shared felt tangible, applicable, specific, and relevant. Sometimes I feel like advocacy talks only employ the ‘treat others like you would want to be treated’ strategy, but your lecture went so far beyond that. I appreciate you pointing out several aspects of LGBT+ life that I (a LGBT+ individual) don’t even think about/notice myself. Thank you! I really appreciate your time and the passion you’ve put into your talks. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for sharing your story. You’re impacting so many people’s lives. I liked the specific responses he said should be said when someone comes out or how to create a safe environment for someone to come out.
This story was so inspiring. To hear about everything Dr. Holt went through, on top of medical school, was very eye-opening. It makes you think about how hard it is for people in the LGBTQ+ community to accept themselves and homophobic people, especially family members. It is very brave of Dr. Holt to share this vulnerable experience and grow from it and help others. Dr. Holt has done so much for the countless communities by sharing his story. This really inspires me to use any challenges I experience to make a positive impact on others. I also understand more how to empathize and listen to people in the LGBTQ+ community, in both social and healthcare settings.
Thank you for sharing your story. It is very empowering to hear from someone about an important topic. I am personally a part of the LGBTQ+ community and my advocacy is very alike Dr. Holt’s. I feel listened to and I appreciate JUMP START for choosing this as their topic/subject of discussion. THANK YOU! I also have always wanted to continue my advocacy and possibly do some research on LGBTQ+ within our community. I would’ve loved to hear how you started your research/advocacy.
I enjoyed the talk very much. You have given me ways to be more inclusive in my future office. Thank you for your time! I will make sure to change the way I talk to patients, even as a CNA today and in the future. I will be much more inclusive.
Great talk! I feel that it’s important that we share our personal stories because you really do learn a lot from them and seeing different perspectives on the upbringing of one’s journey. This impacted me by further motivating myself to ensure that the field of medicine becomes more inclusive. As a physician, I will strive to always advocate for my patients, coworkers, and anyone else in my environment.
This story was very powerful and inspiring for my goals in LGBT+ community advocacy. This story gives me strength to know that difficult goals can be reached even when the odds are against you. This allowed me to gain another experience of the LGBT+ community that I wouldn’t have thought could be possible with how how extreme his story was. Will promote safe environments for gender-affirming care as well as other sensitive topics a patient may be struggling with.
Very powerful storytelling. Thanks for sharing how you overcame a very dark and dangerous period of you life and how you came out of it. Enjoyed the conversational aspect of talk. This talk encouraged me to be myself and live for myself; how to help people feel safe enough to come out; and creating affirmative LGBTQ+ healthcare to make environment more welcoming.
Very inspiring. You are very strong and brave. Thank you for talking! I felt very safe and welcome when you were talking. Made me realize I need to be more of an advocate myself.
Your talk was very moving. The examples you give show how important it is to show empathy to everyone because everyone goes through something and you never know how hard time is for others. This talk helped open my eyes to see more areas where support and empathy are needed within my everyday life.
This talk really inspired me. It takes great courage to talk about this subject so I applaud Dr. Holt. This talk pushes me to be true to myself and to live a life I want to live and to be who I truly am.
Thank you for sharing your story. I genuinely appreciate your transparency and commend you for not giving up on yourself and your story. You are incredible and I want to thank you again for your strength and ability to demonstrate what can happen when your soul’s passion aligns with your person. I appreciate the tools you were able to equip us with and share how we an enhance communication between friends, family, and future patients. Even if I don’t understand something I now feel more confident in showing compassion and empathy by letting those around me know I am a safe space. And thank you for the resources! Looking forward to take advantage of the information to become a better provider.
A very inspiring story of which I am grateful to hear about. LGBTQ+ representation in healthcare is limited now, but we can transform it for the future. As an ally, this has been very eye-opening for me. I always felt bullied for asking for pronouns and preferred names at my current clinical experience but this has allowed me to feel confident to continue asking and affirming this. Thank you! I appreciate all of your work.
I appreciate your vulnerability because I’m challenged with being vulnerable myself.
Extremely vulnerable and important story telling. I like how you talked about your books and how you still continued to pursue medicine. I like how you have examples of how to approach coming out. It was extremely eye-opening and enhanced my advocacy. This talk has encouraged me to look more into LGBTQ+ healthcare.
Create a level of comfortability between you and patient which may mean being straight forward.
Thank you so much for sharing! I really appreciated the specific examples on how to approach sexuality and gender in healthcare.
I really appreciate the safe place you created and all your services given. It gave me much education on how to approach my future patients, friends, etc.
Be comfortable talking about sexuality so that patients can feel comfortable sharing. You don’t have to understand a situation, but you have to have compassion. Will focus on creating safe spaces. First thing to say when someone comes out – ‘Thank you for feeling comfortable sharing with me.’